DVD Spin Doctor

Blu-ray review: 'The Prisoner'

At the least, we can be grateful for AMC's "reimagining" of "The Prisoner" because it hastened the arrival of the classic cult series on Blu-ray.

"The Prisoner," of course, was in no need of a remake. The '60s spy series feels more relevant than ever ... and yet remains very much a product of its time -- 1966-1967, the glory days of psychedelia and paranoia.

The new "Prisoner," however, knows better than to go toe-to-toe with Patrick McGoohan's original. Its many knowing nods to the '60s series aside, the six-episode miniseries goes its own way, beginning with its casting of Ian McKellen as the sole "No. 2" character (where the original had many).

McKellen proves the definitive No. 2 -- a puppet master with the intelligence, charm, casual cruelty and wit the likes of which the original never had. Jim Caviezel falls short as No. 6, predictably and inevitably, but at least he has the smarts to play the part without McGoohan riffs.

I have no idea how this miniseries plays for someone unfamiliar with McGoohan's "Prisoner," but for open-minded fans of the original there is much to ponder, chuckle over and appreciate. Good show (at least based on the first two hours).

Back to the main event: A&E's latest packaging of "The Prisoner" brings the U.S. video release into sync with the excellent 40th anniversary release from Britain (2007) -- with the addition of stunning high definition video. 

(A&E also had a 40th anniversary DVD collection in 2006, but it mostly recycled the five individual multi-episode sets released in 2001.)

On Blu-ray, the op art/pop art imagery of "The Prisoner" leaps from the screen. Colors are bold and vivid, yet not oversaturated. The clarity is remarkable, almost too good -- the actors' perspiration and skin blemishes are borderline distracting (the kind of thing industry folks fretted about in the early days of HD).

Can't recall a better-looking presentation of a '60s television show, even considering the minor grain, speckling and miscellaneous artifacts.

Audio is OK, whether you choose the 5.1 track (with its once-over-lightly mix) or the 2.0 mono. The audio does have bouts of that tinniness associated with pop soundtracks of the day.

The feature-length documentary comes from 2007 and the U.K. box, a welcome upgrade from the so-so docu on A&E's last effort. 

"Don't Knock Yourself Out" starts off with a fan-boy tone, but eventually digs deep into the show's history, including a lengthy look at star/exec producerPatrick McGoohan's sometimes weird and abusive behavior on the set. 

McGoohan, who was in his final years, did not participate, but is quoted thusly:

"If whatever we wanted to say is not already contained within the episodes of the series then I failed in the production of them and any amount of chit-chat now will not make good that omission."

There were whispers about a McGoohan nervous breakdown on the set, and he apparently caused one for No. 2 actor Leo McKern, who shows up in the docu to bash his old boss as a "loathsome bully." 

McGoohan kept it chilly with his leading actresses, refusing to even kiss one when the script called for it. 

"I just loathed Patrick," one actress tells the filmmakers. "I hated the whole thing." Another actor recalls McGoohan strangling him when he was supposed to be faking it: "I could see those mad eyes looking down on me."

Karma being a bitch, the story goes that actor McGoohan was attacked by viewers on the streets of London after the ambiguous series finale aired.  

But mostly the documentary brings together the show's old cast, crew and executives to sing its praises. This is a film made for fans, by fans. If you have 10 minutes or so to spare for the history of "Rover" -- the series' famous white bouncing mochi ball of an enforcer -- step right up.

Several of the key witnesses show up on episode commentaries, for those who can't get enough of The Village.

A&E's "The Prisoner: The Complete Series" on Blu-ray should prove definitive, given its outstanding images and the wealth of extras, most swept up by various video versions over the years.

 This is the fifth or sixth post about "The Prisoner" series on this DVD blog, and probably the last. Looks like case closed. Be seeing you, No. 6.

Blu-ray review: 'The Complete Monterey Pop'

Monterey the rock festival still stands in the shadows of the bigger and gaudier Woodstock, but "Monterey Pop" the film has no rival as a time capsule of late-'60s rock."

D.A. Pennebaker's documentary was smarter, hipper and more musical than other rock films of the era. Yes, that includes the endlessly celebrated "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music," recently tricked out on video for the fest's 40th anniversary.

The Criterion Collection gave "Monterey Pop" its due back in 2006 with a carefully crafted DVD box set. Now, the label is back with the movie in high definition video and lossless sound.

Disc 1 of Criterion's Blu-ray box brings together a fully restored version of the original film and several hours of bonus performances. Disc 2 has the two spinoff films starring Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding.

"The Complete Monterey Pop Festival" Blu-ray set retails for $70, $10 less than the DVD version, which had three discs. The packaging is smaller but almost identical to the 2006 edition. The beautiful booklet loses some visual impact, as it's reduced by an inch or so all around.

Audio and video easily pass the acid test. An A-B comparison of the Janis Joplin showstopper "Ball and Chain" was fairly dramatic, with the Blu-ray (DTS-HD MA) boasting a much more musical audio experience than the DVD.

The separation in original engineer Eddie Kramer's 5.1 mix felt even more vivid yet better balanced, while the instrumental shrillness that runs throughout the soundtrack was mitigated. Joplin's voice had better presence and came across as much warmer.

I actually preferred the DVD audio on the Who's "My Generation," which had more balls and power than the Blu-ray rendition -- distortion and blunt force being good things here.

Rear channels give off stadium ambiance, instrument echoes and audience cheers, making for an open, you-are-there vibe. Likewise, the HD video taken from the original 16mm negatives looks flower-child fresh, with almost none of the deterioration that plagued pre-2006 "Monterey Pop" videos.

The upgrade to high definition seemed to tame the grain a bit, but the 16mm stock clearly limits what could be done. (Audio and video on the outtakes have significantly rougher edges, including a lot of hair on the lenses.)

"Monterey" was, remarkably, the work of a filmmaker without a clue. New Yorker D.A. Pennebaker knew nothing of the bands he was filming or of the world-changing events unfolding before his cameras in 196

"I was the most ignorant person there," Pennebaker recalls in his commentary. "It was a strange kind of Martian adventure for me."

"Monterey Pop" captured the hippie music scene at a time closer to the Newport of Dylan than the chaos of the big Eastern rock fests. Many acts were folkies making the transition to rock, accomplished performers right at home on Monterey's small, traditional stage. The mixed bag of performers included hitmakers the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, the Who and Buffalo Springfield.

Festival and film producer Lou Adler says Monterey provided the tipping point between the gentler "old guard" and the new wave of guitar-fueled psychedelia.

"The film had a lot of the energy of what was coming," he say

Several of the era's biggest acts -- notably the Beatles and Stones -- failed to make the scene in Northern California, leaving the glory to a pair of mostly unknown performers: Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. The Blu-ray's revved-up audio echoes the shock of new from Joplin's "Ball and Chain" and Hendrix's "Wild Thing."

Time has been kind to many of Pennebaker's creative decisions. The inclusion of international acts Hugh Masekela and Ravi Shankar gives the film a contemporary musical tone. Otis Redding makes the cut, not Lou Rawls. Editing avoids the frantic cuts of rock clich

Pennebaker ("Don't Look Back") speaks at length about Indian musician Shankar's raga that is the thrilling but challenging finale. The plan that day was to focus on the audience reacting to the exotic Indian music, so Shankar's stage cinematography was left to two inexperienced cameramen.

"It turned out to be the most extraordinarily dramatic piece of music we ever ran across," the director recalls. During editing, Pennebaker says, he resisted pressure from Mama Cass Elliot to cut the lengthy instrumental, saying nothing could possibly follow it. Writer Truman Capote, of all people, encouraged Pennebaker to retain the number and the ensuing ovation that provides the film's touching final moments.

The cinema verite enhances many of the film's charms: When Eric Burdon sings "Paint It, Black," Brian Jones walks among the crowd, unheralded. You either get it or you don't -- the camera moves on either way.

Adler, who partnered with Mamas and Papas frontman John Phillips to produce the festival, tells how a peace broke out between the rival rock factions of L.A. and San Francisco to facilitate the event.

Monterey was financed by network TV, with young ABC exec Barry Diller envisioning a musical special. Once fest organizers realized what they had, they deliberately screened Hendrix's R-rated performance for the ABC suits -- and were allowed to go elsewhere.

Outstanding outtakes on the set include Paul Butterfield, the Electric Flag, the Byrds and Laura Nyro. A bonus three-song segment from the Who features drummer Keith Moon at the peak of his crazed powers. The Mamas and the Papas close the show, and the bonus section, with what would be their next-to-last concert.

Extras include audio interviews with the late Phillips and other key performers, Pete Townshend discussing his famous backstage flap with Hendrix, and Tiny Tim performing in the green room, a piece of theater as trippy as anything ever cooked up in Haight Ashbury.

New DVDs: 'Adventureland,' 'Duplicity'

A trio of good smart movies hit the DVD shelves in recent weeks, competing for best in show in these dog days: "Adventureland," "Duplicity" and "Tyson."

"Adventureland" comes from the same guy who busted out with "Superbad," but don't hold it against this dandy coming-of-age movie, set in a low-rent amusement park. 

The movie drew great reviews but failed to find much of an audience, ticketing only $15 million at the domestic boxoffice (compared with $121 million for "Superbad"). Here's hoping the midway movie finds its audience on home video.

The movie pinballs from comedy to drama to romance, propped up by familiar story elements -- basically, a lost young man finds himself with the help of friends wise and foolish, and falls in love along the way. 

The star is Jesse Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale") and the leading young lady is current hot property Kristen Stewart ("Twilight"). The film comes packed with good performances.

Director-writer Greg Mottola based the story on his "ridiculous job" working in a Long Island park during the "fateful summer" of 1984. While the movie embraces the decade, especially in its hair and music, Mottola says he guarded against "Adventureland" "becoming a long cheap joke on the '80s."

The music certainly makes a case for the era. 

Mottola says in the DVD extra features that his script specified songs for each scene -- mostly atmospheric rock songs that haven't been overplayed. And so we have the Replacements, Big Star, Husker Du and the Cure -- with Lou Reed imported from the '60s and '70s to provide a few songs and a plot element. It's as if Madonna never existed. Yo La Tengo does the "Adventureland" score. 

The movie sounds solid, especially on the Blu-ray. The video looks good enough, although the production's low budget becomes apparent at times.

Extras on the Miramax DVD and Blu-ray of "Adventureland" include a few (weak) deleted scenes, a hilarious piece on the nads-busting kid, a fashion skit with park vixen Lisa P, and some more dumb ads and videos from the pretend park. (Hint: Watchers of the credits are rewarded.) 

Mottola does the commentary track with star Eisenberg, although it's mostly the director's talk.

"The last thing I'd ever recommend is looking back on your youth and trying to figure it out and make a movie about it," he says, mostly joking.

"Duplicity" writer-director Tony Gilroy has a few good war stories on his commentary track, such as what it's like to shoot superstar actress Julia Roberts on the streets of midtown Manhattan (immediate chaos).

Gilroy's movie repaired Roberts with Clive Owen ("Closer"), in a tale of corporate spies turning on their handlers. "Duplicity" certainly looks all high-tech modern, but its roots are in the caper films of the 1960s, such as "Charade." Some critics found the darkly funny film too smart for its own good, but I had a great time.

Universal Studios' Blu-ray of "Duplicity" is super sharp and dimensional, a showcase presentation. In a show of class, the disc opens immediately with the menu for the film (unlike "Adventureland," which has Disney's usual parade of promos and trailers).

Gilroy's commentary (done with editor and co-producer John Gilroy) serves as the only extra feature.

The brothers talk at length about the film's opening flashback scene, set in Dubai, which resulted from studio execs' notes. Placing the "throwaway scene" at the film's beginning changed the film dramatically, they say, making the story less confusing. Regardless, viewers need to remain engaged to hang with the fast-moving, time-shifting plot.

Director Gilroy talks about his great relief upon discovering that Roberts wasn't too cool for school -- the actress was "so cool, so sweet" and so helpful in finishing the movie.

"Tyson" director James Toback has mostly good things to say about the subject of his in-your-face film about the combustible former heavyweight champ. 

Viewers, though, are left to make up their own minds about the uber-boxer and his elaborate spin on his past. In a way, "Tyson" is as much a self-portrait as a documentary. 

Mike Tyson had just emerged from rehab when filming began. The retired boxer agreed to let Toback make the final call on all content in the movie, which consists almost entirely of the boxer sifting though his past. (The movie was shot before his young daughter died.)

Tyson's voice has an odd, slightly hypnotic quality -- more mature and resonant now -- that stands up to the movie's running time. He sits for the camera (the tattooed face you get used to, honest), sometimes wandering around a swimming pool and an L.A. beach.

No one else appears in the live action scenes. When the film cuts away from Tyson, it's for fight footage, archival news clips and images. All of Tyson's highlights and lowlights are there -- this is no fan movie.

Toback says Tyson often sat in silence while the camera ran. At times, he's on the verge of tears. Otherwise, he's in control, offering explanations, rationalizations and a few general apologies. Toback has humanized Tyson, no small feat.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Blu-ray of "Tyson" comes with a handful of decent extras, centered on Toback, not Tyson. The director also does a commentary track.

Other recent DVDs and Blu-rays of note include Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco" (Criterion), "thirtysomething" (Shout! Factory) and "Surveillance" (Magnolia Home Entertainment).

Blu-ray animation soars with 'Up,' 'Coraline'

Pixar's animated fantasy "Up" touches down on DVD and Blu-ray on Nov. 10, arriving in plenty of time for the family viewing season.

Disney home video is selling the hit feature in a four-disc Blu-ray set ($45.99 suggested retail) and a double-disc DVD edition ($39.99).

The colorful "Up" did good boxoffice in its 3D version, but so far there's no talk of a tri-di home video release. Curious, because the movie went out of its way to poke objects through the screen and such, in a bid to wow the folks wearing silly glasses. 2D audiences were left to wonder why the movie dwelled so on multilayered views of clouds.

The dark and delicious "Coraline," the year's best animated feature, came out a few weeks ago in DVD and Blu-ray sets packing both the 3D and 2D versions. Having seen both on Blu-ray, I recommend the 2D, which has plenty of pop and dimensionality without the anaglyph treatment's short-lived novelty.

Disney home video has been putting out tween-friendly content in 3D, so you have to wonder if the artists at Pixar were less than thrilled with the prospect of using anaglyph 3D. Or maybe it's a double dip.

"Up's" story of a Spencer Tracy-like codger who flies away to South America in his old house won't hold everyone's interest, but it's worth a look. There's a great love story for adults and a reasonably exciting (but predictable) adventure for the kids featuring an Asian American boy scout.

For imagination and verve, though, I strongly prefer "Coraline" (more below).

Pixar's fun and furry "Monsters, Inc." also debuts in the Blu-ray format on Nov. 10, porting over the old extras plus a bit more.

Here are some of the key extra features on the "Up" videos. As in becoming standard, the DVD and "Up" Blu-ray share tentpole content, although there is a more robust, interactive experience to be had in the HD package:

• Commentary by director Pete Docter and his co-director.
• "Dug's Special Mission" A new cartoon with the Asian American boy hero of "Up."
• "Partly Cloudy": The so-so short that movie audiences saw before "Up." It features, um, multilayered views of clouds.
• "Adventure Is Out There": A docu about the filmmakers' journey to the tepuis mountains of South America in order to research the design and story. 
• Various character studies, including "Geriatric Hero" Carl, the slobbering dogs, the wilderness explorer and the silly giant bird (Blu-ray only). 
• A breakdown of the moving scene in which the love story of Carl and his wife is done in fast-forward, "Citizen Kane" style (Blu-ray only).

"Up," of course, recalls the work of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, especially his "Howl's Moving Castle," which also features a flying structure. No surprise, since Pixar chieftain John Lasseter is a huge fan and disciple of Miyazaki, eagerly promoting his hero's work in the States. Lasseter has been known to screen Miyazaki's films for his animators as a cure for creative block.

Miyazaki's "Ponyo" opens in the U.S. on Friday (Aug. 14), in limited release. The animated adventure is distributed by Walt Disney, which also imported "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Spirited Away." (There's some irony there since Miyazaki winces whenever he's called the "Walt Disney of Japan.") Any opportunity to see a Miyazaki film on a big screen should be celebrated.

Disney also issued a decent series of Miyazaki DVDs about five years ago, including his best-known film, "Spirited Away." Here's hoping the Mouse House makes it a priority to issue Blu-ray versions of those magical Miyazaki films, and other works by him.

* * * * *

It's been a good year for animated fare on DVD and Blu-ray. Here are some of the titles I've been wanting to write up.

"Waltz with Bashir": The movie begins and ends with nightmarish scenes, one imagined and one all-too-real. This troubling and thoughtful work about Israeli soldiers in Lebanon could have easily been a feature documentary, but instead comes as a stylized animation. Filmmaker Ari Folman tells his story and those of his friends as soldiers in Israel's early 1980s misadventure in Lebanon. The movie tells of the veterans' later efforts to exorcise the horrors of urban warfare and ethnic cleansing. Sony's beautiful Blu-ray rendition of "Waltz With Bashir" comes with a strong director's commentary and examinations of the unusual animation scheme, in which the characters move about like standee cutouts at times. Looks like a graphic novel, feels like real life. Excellent soundtrack.

"Coraline": Neil Gaiman's tale of a girl who finds an alternate reality lurking in her new house gets back to the creepy days of early fairy tales, when awful things can happen to good kids. The director, Henry Selick, also made "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and while the film is similar stylistically, the storytelling is pure Gaiman. The Blu-ray from Universal Studios comes with a quartet of 3D glasses, but go with the 2D option for maximum visual impact. The famed graphic novelist Gaiman ("Sandman," "Mirror Mask") participates in the extras, expressing admiration for how his kids book was adapted -- and significantly changed -- for the screen.

"Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941-1942": People tend to think of sophisticated, noirish lighting schemes in cartoons as a product of modern times, but here's proof that some of the best stuff was being done almost 70 years ago. Warner Home Video's release of 17 theatrical shorts comes straight from the original masters, and looks it. These are highly formulaic adventures of Superman/Clark Kent, Louis Lane and the Daily Planet gang, so don't expect storytelling on the level of the incredible art. Two special features look at the cartoon series and the evolution of the Mensch of Steel.

"Peanuts: 1960's Collection": Warner has been cleaning up its Peanuts TV specials in recent years; here's a chance to get the two ageless classics and two new-to-DVD '60s specials. Includes "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," "You're in Love, Charlie Brown," "Charlie Brown All-Stars" and the two debuting titles: "He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown" and "It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown." Disc 2 has a 40-minute featurette about the Peanuts music man, Vince Guaraldi. The Christmas special came out on Blu-ray last fall.

Blu-ray review: 'Do the Right Thing'

The title sequence of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" ranks as one of the great openings in film history. Certainly it's among the most explosive.

First, the rap group Public Enemy bum rushes the soundtrack, spitting out the movie's propulsive theme song, "Fight the Power."

Then actress Rosie Perez appears front and center, dancing with passion and style, but as if in a trance. Her original fly-girl moves would be copied for years to come.

Meanwhile, the opening credits show off Lee's killer cast: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruth Lee, John Turturro, Bill Nunn, Samuel Jackson, Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris, Giancarlo Esposito, Perez  -- some famous at the time, some relative unknowns.

Seen and heard on Blu-ray, the title sequence picks up even more velocity.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment delivers that boost with its excellent high definition release of "Do the Right Thing," marking the 20th anniversary of the controversial film about race relations in Brooklyn.

The Blu-ray (and double-disc DVD version) builds upon the Criterion Collection's 2001 DVD, retaining most of the solid extra features.

New to the 20th anniversary "Do the RIght Thing" are a solo feature commentary by Lee and a retrospective docu with the director interviewing his collaborators. This is an unusually fine effort out of Universal, not known for extensive extra features.

As a story, "Do the Right Thing" has aged beautifully, although its racially explosive elements don't scrape the same raw nerves as in 1989. Now it's "a totally different New York" than when the film was made, Lee says. The film was shot in the aftermath of the notorious Howard Beach attack on three black teenagers. Although the movie is set in a black-Hispanic neighborhood, "It's (really) about Howard Beach," Lee says.

The director pays tribute to then-Universal Studios chief Tom Pollock, who fought to distribute the film in its original form. Lee's critics said its pizzeria riot scene would incite mob violence by reminding urban audiences of the 1986 attacks. It didn't.

The film takes place over the course of the hottest day of the year, on a single block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Lee introduces us to two dozen or so characters and follows their mostly humorous interactions for two acts. The film concludes as many of the characters we've come to like form a mob and attack a local pizzeria owned by Italian Americans.

Top-billed Danny Aiello plays the proprietor of Sal's Famous Pizzeria, where he employs his two sons, one a flat-out racist (John Turturro). Mookie (Spike Lee) is their delivery man, a local guy whose love of money barely trumps his aversion to work.

Sal refuses a black customer's request to add photos of Afro-Americans to his Italian-American wall of fame, setting up the last reel's tragic events.

The tension between the Afro-Americans and Italian Americans of New York is the focus of several of Lee's major films. This was the first.

Lee's is not an exclusively Afro-American perspective. The white pizzeria owner and the black customer make "two valid points" about the pictures on the wall, says Lee, who leaves it up to his audience to determine who, if anyone, did the right thing on that searing day.

Not surprisingly, the Academy Awards barely acknowledged this now-classic film. The 1989 best picture award, ironically, went to "Driving Miss Daisy," a gentle film about a white woman and her black chauffeur. "Do the Right Thing" wasn't even nominated in the best picture category. Only Aiello received a major nomination, while Lee was up for best original screenplay.

The project started as "Heat Wave," a study of how "people just lose their minds in New York when the temperature hits 95 and above," Lee says. "As the heat escalates, everything else escalates."

Lee and his cinematographer Ernest Dickerson decided to use "color psychology" to reflect the heat, most notably on the "firetruck red" wall that's the backdrop for the three middle-aged streetcorner guys who make up the Greek chorus.

"It was hot as shit," Lee recalls of the five-week shoot. "I still feel the heat," one actor says.

Regardless, it rained throughout the first weeks of location shooting, a nightmare for DP Dickerson. "I had to come up with a formula for making sunlight."

"Do the Right Thing" was Lee's third film. Universal gave him the freedom to make the movie he wanted, after first approving the script.

"This was the first film where I felt confident as a director," he recalls in the new commentary. "For the first two (movies) I was intimidated by actors, but I knew if I wanted to continue ... I had to tighten this shit up."

Lee filmed the Blu-ray retrospective during a Lincoln Center tribute last winter. The director's interaction with Rosie Perez is a hoot, as they debate what happened the night he discovered her in an L.A. club.

John Turturro recalls his concern about riding subways after playing his racist pizza maker, but says people of color still come up to him to rave about the film. Chuck D of Public Enemy says he was baffled as to how to write an anthem, as Lee insisted.

Ported over from the Criterion DVD (and laserdisc) are a making-of docu, a group commentary track featuring Lee and Dickerson, and some intriguing deleted scenes. There's also a storyboard breakdown of the riot scene and an interview with the editor.

Befitting the film's status, the Blu-ray loads directly to the handsome menu, skipping the usual promo parade.

The clarity and colors are outstanding, far beyond what you'd expect. The 5.1 surround stage is used to great effect, especially when the helicopter makes a cameo on "Fight the Power."

Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors, right up there with, say, Hitchcock. Like Hitch, Lee has his ups and downs -- some dog films to go with the classics -- but he's always trying to do the right thing by his audience.

Related DVD review: "Malcom X."

Paramount polishes 'Braveheart,' 'Gladiator'

Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" and Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" finally enter the Blu-ray arena, as the inaugural titles in Paramount Home Entertainment's new Blu-ray "Sapphire Series."

The tricked-out high def movies arrive Sept. 1, with "Forrest Gump," another Paramount mainstay, hoofing it toward a Nov. 3 release.

The series continues Paramount's recent push to upgrade its classic films. The ongoing Centennial Series has right by some of the studio's older legacy titles such as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "Sabrina" and "To Catch a Thief." Those titles have best-possible audio and video, as well as new extra features aimed at film buffs.

The new Sapphire  Blu-rays come in double-disc sets that take advantage of the Blu-ray players' interactive possibilities.

In the case of "Braveheart," the Sapphire Series ups the ante with two hours of new extra features. (The late 2007 Special Collector's Edition release had a decent package of bonus materials.) 

The "Braveheart" Blu-ray features include:

Braveheart: A Look Back -- New interviews with the cast and crew. The DVD had "archival" interviews, meaning recycled press stuff.

Timelines -- An "interactive" extra that clicks off to video, images and text. The three separate timelines cover production, historical and fiction. The historical timeline focuses on "Braveheart" William Wallace and his contemporaries.

Geography -- A history of Smithfield's "medieval killing fields," where Wallace was drawn and quartered. Another feature looks at the "Battlefields of the Scottish Rebellion" in a museum-style format, complete with 3D models.

"Braveheart," like "Gladiator," comes in 5.1 Dolby TrueHD.

"Gladiator" enters the Blu-ray arena with more than four hours of extra features. The set includes both the theatrical cut and the expanded version that adds something like 17 minutes. 

The upcoming "Gladiator" Blu-ray comes with new extras and also updates some of the older special features with interactive activities. This is worth noting, since most DVD extras are just repurposed when used on later videos.

"Gladiator" has been well represented on DVD by the exhaustive "Gladiator: Extended Edition", which included a 200-minute making-of documentary. That fairly remarkable docu, "Strength and Honor: Creating the World of Gladiator," appears on disc 2 of the Blu-ray, this time augmented by an alternative viewing mode leading to updated interviews and other materials. Another innovative feature allows viewers to "bookmark" scenes on the film on disc 1, and then automatically access the supporting exta features on disc 2.

There are two feature-length commentaries, an updated version of the trivia track and the old "First Look" from HBO.

The upcoming "Forrest Gump" Blu-ray includes new extra features such as a contemporary roundtable discussion about Robert Zemeckis' hit popcorn movie.

Also on the Blu-ray front, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has teamed up with the entertainment data provider Gracenote for "movie!Q," which allows home viewers to look up film credits, production info and the like. 

The feature is part of Sony's BD-Live services. The Blu-ray player must be connected to the Internet. Gracenote, also a Sony unit, is best known perhaps for providing track information on iTunes.

How Blu-ray can survive -- and thrive

Be sure to check out the lively and lengthy thread on the tech blog Gadgets about the Blu-ray format and its chances for survival.

The initial post on the N.Y. Times blog, "Rethinking Blu-ray" was inspired by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's demonstration of its BD Live features last week, an event I attended as well. 

The Sony folks demoed a 007 trivia game that can played online as well as a sharable jukebox feature for the great Chess Records movie "Cadillac Records." There was a retail component, too, as you'd imagine. 

So far, these "live" features seem targeted at the text-messaging crowd, but their potential seems vast once Blu-ray gets its various compatibility issues sorted out -- and broadband finds its way to most living room-bound Blu-ray players. 

I posted a comment on the Gadget thread, repeating some of the points I've made before on this DVD blog. Here goes:

"In many ways, Blu-ray is its own worst enemy. 

"The format came to market before it was ready, while the rival format HD DVD had most (but not all) of its issues ironed out.

 "Blu-ray's hunger for regular "firmware" updates, the slow load times and the fact that to this day some discs simply won't play in some players are among the factors that have hurt the format.

 "Internet-fed interactive features only work on some players as well. $600 Blu-ray players bought two years ago are sadly outdated today, such as Samsung's notorious BD-P1200. 

"These issues certainly have tempered Blu-ray evangelism from early adopters.

 "Blu-ray's amazing images should be reason enough for people with HD-ready TV monitors to upgrade. Compared with well-produced HD titles, DVDs look flat and lifeless. As a bonus, DVDs "upconverted" on these HD machines look far better than on DVD players.

 "I agree that the broadband-dependent interactive features the studios have pushed so far (such as chat and games) seem best suited to younger audiences -- not the consumers making decisions to buy these pricey machines and discs. These features bring to mind the DVD-ROM extras that no one ever bothered with on DVDs. 

"Most people just want to watch a movie. 

"Still, we glimpse the future with "live" extra features. This marriage of Internet content and home video points the way to what will be routine as broadband-connected media servers become commonplace in living rooms.

 "Blu-ray manufacturers need to make no-hassle wi-fi standard on all of these machines, instead of pretending that most people have broadband hard wired into their living rooms."

Update: Apple may be rethinking its resistance to incorporating Blu-ray into its products, Home Media magazine reports.

'Passion of Christ,' 'The Robe' on Blu-ray

Five years have passed since the theatrical release of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," one of the most successful films in boxoffice history and certainly one of the most vilified.

Gibson's gory depiction of the crucifixion and Jesus' suffering (the "passion" in ancient-speak), fired up just about everybody with a personal stake in religion.

Jewish outrage centered on the movie's black-clad cabal of high priests who demanded Jesus' torture and death. Biblical literalists complained about the artistic license taken with the four Gospels.

Then there was the ultra-violence. One film critic denounced "Passion" as a snuff film: "The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre." Indeed, the torture-porn masterpiece "Hostel" hasn't much on "The Passion of the Christ." 

The satanist lobby probably had a beef with its depiction of an androgynist dark lord.

The collective firestorm started before Gibson's film was released, fueled by people who had not seen it. Many of those knee-jerk critics probably still have not witnessed the movie. Here's hoping they do.

Perhaps in 2009 "The Passion of the Christ" can be seen more clearly -- as a highly personal film from a believer, and as a work of art.

Fox provides a great opportunity for revisionist viewing with the Blu-ray release of "The Passion of the Christ" in its "Definitive Edition." This set brings together all existing home video elements of "Passion" -- the original theatrical release, the edited version (for squeamish viewers) and the parade of extras from the DVD Definitive Edition of two years ago.

That 2007 DVD apparently cut into audio and video quality in order to make room for the generous extras. Now, offered as a double-disc set, the film unspools at its best, with gorgeous (and gory) widescreen visuals and robust DTS HD-Master Audio sound.

I was among those who never saw "Passion," having grown weary of the cacophony while handling the story as a Hollywood news editor. I approach it now as a reviewer equally enthusiastic about art films and ambitious horror movies. And as a former altar boy who long ago wandered off from Catholicism.

"Passion" rejects the largely bloodless, sanitized and commercialized approach to Christ's death accepted over the past half century or so. Gibson's movie instead offers a vision of how horribly Jesus suffered in his final 12 hours, awakening viewers to what he endured for his beliefs and his followers.

Whether you see Jesus of Nazareth as a magician, god or enlightened teacher, it's almost impossible not to be moved by Gibson's depiction of Christ's agonies and those of his mother, Mary.

Gibson's film humanizes Jesus, perhaps the root of its many problems.

I have no idea if director Gibson is an anti-Semite, but you couldn't go into court with the evidence found here. 

Movies need their villains, and so Gibson found his in the Jewish high priest Caiaphas. (True, Gibson chose not to reflect the priest's motivational ambiguity cited in one of the Gospels -- one of thousands of plot decisions.) The film is filled with Jewish characters, including Jesus and his followers. I saw nothing in "Passion" that furthered the libels of deicide thrust upon the Jewish people, at least beyond what is found in the Gospels. You might know better.

The Romans come off the worst, as indecisive administrators who allowed an obviously innocent man to go to torture and death. Most of their soldiers are shown as cartoonish sadistic pigs.

One strong reason for the artistic success of "The Passion of the Christ" remains Gibson's insistence on using two dead languages, Aramaic and Latin. (Jesus spoke Aramaic.) This allowed for an international cast without all English-speaking actors. The film's Jesus, Jim Caviezel, is American.

Gibson explained the language thusly: Having Jesus and his contemporaries speak in English makes about as much sense as having the Vikings land, speaking Japanese. 

Father William Fulco, who created the Aramaic used in the film, notes that no one really knows what the language sounded like at the time of Christ. He calls his work "plausible Aramaic."

This use of an incomprehensible language "brings us backward in time and we are flies on the wall at the Jesus event," Fulco says in the extras. Few audience members will pick up on the inflammatory line left out of the subtitles but included in the dialog. Or Jesus reponding to Pontius Pilate in Latin after the Roman dismissedly addresses him in the local Aramaic.

The extra on the film's dead languages comes as part of "The Legacy" (of Christ) section on the standard definition disc 2.

Another standout segment looks at crucifixion as practiced and perfected by the Romans. This was "the most shameful death," the docu experts say. That's because of the horrific public death while naked -- but, more importantly at the time, because the victims were not buried properly, some just left to the animals.

The ropes and nails used in crucifixions were later sold as magic amulets. Romans could not be put to death in this fashion, saving the worst for their conquered lands. The image of Christ on the cross did not gain currency until the 4th century, hundreds of years after the execution technique was outlawed and memories had faded.

"The Legacy" also brings us a look at the passion as depicted in art. Gibson and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel favored the "cinematic" works of Caravaggio and those of El Greco. "Religion and art are parallel ventures," one expert notes.

Gibson's self-financed production is addressed elsewhere on disc 2, in a collection of "Filmmaking" shorts. The footage of Caviezel's ordeal during the crucifixion scenes shows the crew trying to keep the near-naked actor warm while most people on location wore heavy jackets.  Caviezel talks of doing endless lunges (leg exercises) so he could hold himself up on the cross.

Unfortunately, all of these extras date back to 2005. A look back at the controversies and legacy of the film at the five-year point would have been most welcome. One small section in the making-of concerns the attacks on the film, not nearly enough. 

There are several commentaries, the best being a talk with Gibson, Father Fulco and a pair of theologians. They fill in a lot of blanks and point to detail in the film that most people would miss. This is no Sunday school lesson; the men have a good time delivering the commentary. Don't miss their descriptions of the crucifixion scene. Gibson, relaxed, clearly has achieved some distance from the project. The other two commentaries focus on the production.

* * * * *

To appreciate Mel Gibson's achievement, check out "The Robe" from 1953, also released as a Fox Blu-ray. The Catholic director Martin Scorsese introduces the film as if it were a masterpiece -- a stretch of Biblical proportions.

No doubt the swords-and-sandals epic has a place in history as the first feature film shot released in true CinemaScope.

The new Blu-ray of "The Robe" vastly improves upon a battered version of the film released in 2001. After years of restoration efforts, the colors and clarity of the 2.55:1 images are remarkable; only a few scenes suffer from remaining damage. There is some distortion on the horizontal sides, due to the original lenses. 

The high-definition format isn't forgiving with the sets and matte paintings, their artificiality distracting at times. But for modern viewers the dated film has bigger problems than that.

Richard Burton stars (in his first major role) as the Roman tribune in charge of the soldiers who crucified Christ. He wins the rough-hewn red robe of Jesus while gambling at Calvary. The tribune finds himself suddenly "bewitched" by the garment and later joins Christ's followers. 

Burton plays the part as if he were suffering a major hangover. Burton's role had been intended at various times for Spencer Tracy, Tyrone Power and other big names, the extras say. Muscle guy Victor Mature is in over his head as a slave whom the Roman buys and tries to befriend. Jean Simmons plays a kitten. Only the movie's Caligula, Jay Robinson, brings life to the movie, largely via the (over)acting techniques that served him in theater.

"The Robe" is one of those home video releases in which the back story is more interesting than the feature film. The making-of extras do a good job of tracking the project from its beginnings as a religious novel, through its stop-and-start production at RKO, and the eventual release via Darryl Zanuck at Fox. Zanuck aset out on his own after seeing how much money long-suffering producer Frank Ross made on the project.

The movie had blacklist issues, with writer Albert Maltz's credit not appearing until recent years. "The Robe" plays as an indictment of cowering before unjust authority, such as Roman conquerors or commie witchhunters. The Nazis provided another thematic target.

Alfred Newman's score, also restored, can be isolated on a separate track. The commentary with composer David Newman and a couple of film historians dwells on Newman's acclaimed music. 

Another strong extra examines Hollywood's Bible films. In more conservative times, Biblical stories provided an good excuse for inserting sex and violence in movies, the historians say.

A picture-in-picture feature allows comparisons of the 'Scope and traditional 35mm versions of "The Robe," shot at the same time. "The CinemaScope Story" makes one of its frequent appearances. There's also an older audio interview with writer Philip Dunne.

Netflix raising Blu-ray prices by 25%

Netflix subscribers with an appetite for high definition discs should stand by for hefty fee hikes come late April.

The monthly increase for high-def fans could be as much as $9.

Blu-ray renters will remember that back in October, Netflix started charging those who rented HD discs an additional $1 per month for the privilege, basically a cover charge. The new pricing replaces that simple charge, starting April 27. Active subs no doubt will look back on the $1 months as the good old days.

Pricing is on an escalating scale.

• Netflix subs limited to one DVD at a time, for a total of two rentals a month, still will pay the $1. Total monthly bill: $6.
• For those with the more-typical 3 DVDs at a time package (unlimited), the Blu-ray upgrade will be $4, making the total cost $21.
• The highest knock is for those with 8-DVDs-at-a-time plans (unlimited). The additional cost will be $9, ringing up at $57 a month.

A marketing vp was dispatched to explain the dubious economics on the Netflix company blog, noting that Blu-rays cost something like 30% more than DVDs:

"The number of titles available for us to purchase on Blu-ray has increased significantly. Our Blu-ray selection has grown more than 60% in just 6 months to over 1,300 titles, and is continuing to expand quickly. Blu-ray adoption among our members has also grown -- it’s now close to 10%."

Wall Street loved the idea of hitting up the early adapters. Netflix stock rose some like 6 percent on an otherwise suck day for the market. One analyst told Home Media that revenues from the Blu-ray price hike could hit $30 million, almost all of it hitting the bottom line. 

Netflix has been been on a tear this year, partly because customers have increased their at-home time due to the economic mess.

Transparency time: I own Netflix stock and run affiliate ads for the company on this web site.

DVD reviews: 'Ashes of Time,' 'Australia'

Wong Kar-wai decided not to "impose what I've learned in all these years" on the Redux version of "Ashes of Time," his surreal 1994 martial arts film.

That apparently includes feature films' need for some coherence. For all its charms, "Ashes of Time" is a big beautiful mess, one that leaves the uninitiated grappling with the cosmic "Huh?"

Imagine a Chinese version of "El Topo," that seminal psychedelic midnight movie about a badlands-wandering gunslinger.

"Ashes of Time Redux" gave Wong a chance to return to what he admits was "the most complex story I ever made." This rising of "Ashes" was no vanity project, however. 

The elements for the original film were in tatters, Wong discovered a few years back. Without a restoration, he says, the film would have lived on primarily on bootleg VHS tapes. 

The director had to gather negatives from collectors and storage houses across the globe (in the U.S., notably a warehouse for Chinatown cinemas' discarded reels.) The restoration involved use of some new material.

The soundtrack was remixed and re-created, with the addition of inspired and eerie solos by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. 

"Ashes" is loosely based on a Chinese series of historical martial arts novels that Wong describes as "like 'Lord of the Rings' in the West." Wong picked up a couple of characters from author Louis Cha and discarded the rest. 

"I'm not sure he enjoyed (the film)," the director says of the hugely popular "wuxia" writer.

Like most of Wong's films, "Ashes" deals with the pain and pleasures associated with memories of loves lost, paths not taken.

"Wouldn't it be lovely if we could go back to the past," Maggie Cheung's character whispers.

Perhaps. The film's narrator, the object of her musings, begins his tale with: "It's said memory is the root of man's troubles."

The film centers around that narrator (Leslie Cheung), an ex-assassin who brokers the skills of other killers "for a small fee." The assassins, clients and victims come and go, some played by actors in dual roles. The film's only big-name star at the time, Brigitte Lin, plays a sister and brother who try to hire the same assassin to kill each other.

Two Tony Leungs of Hong Kong cinema add to the confusion. Tony Leung Chiu Wai ("Infernal Affairs") plays a swordsman who fights a horde of bandits as his failing vision fades to black. Tony Leung Ka Fai ("Election") plays another warrior, who shows up at the narrator's desert outpost with a bottle of magic wine. 

The plot is woven in chapters dedicated to the Chinese seasons (a scheme thoughtfully reflected in the DVD's inner plastic).

The film was shot on location in the Chinese desert, near Mongolia, at a time when few movies were shot in the country. In the spirit of memories from the well, Wong recalls the shoot as "the days of being wild for us. To revisit it is very emotional."

Cinematographer Christopher Doyle says that in order to capture the desert landscape, he yearned for a lens so wide it doesn't exist. As restored, the images are often saturated in color and swirl, adding to the viewers' delightful disorientation. Unfortunately, the images on the DVD tend toward murky and grainy, almost certainly due to source materials. Audio is good, allowing for enjoyment of the fine score.

The Sony Picture Classics DVD release features two extras. A featurette from the 2008 Cannes film festival catches up with director and cast 15 years later, on the occasion of the "Ashes" rerelease. 

A longer interview with Wong is conducted by the longtime Village Voice film reviewer J. Hoberman. The session covers "Ashes" and some of Wong's other works. It's rewarding ... at least when the critic finally lets the director talk.

Let me recommend Wong's masterpiece "In the Mood for Love" to anyone who hasn't experienced it. The Criterion Collection has a great DVD version out there. The movie stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung, who made a half dozen films together after "Ashes."

Also, Criterion has just released a Blu-ray of Wong's breakthrough work "Chungking Express," made in the same period as "Ashes."

* * * * *

"Australia" also springs from an adventurous location shoot, this time in the "faraway north" of the continent. It was the largest production in Australian film history.

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman share above-the-title credits in the tale built around Australia's own Pearl Harbor, in 1942. The imaginative and visually driven Baz Luhrmann directs.

Fox Home Entertainment has released the romantic epic in single-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions.

In high definition, "Australia" takes your breath away. It's clear from the opening scene that this is reference-quality home video. Colors are vivid, skin tones flawless, everything clear and crisp. Check the water droplets on the boy's brown skin. The audio doesn't quite keep up, but it's certainly good enough.

Unfortunately, "Australia" took a beating from critics and disappointed at the boxoffice. The film barely registered with the Oscar voters, usually suckers for this sort of thing. Hopes had been high among "Moulin Rouge" fans for a reteaming of Kidman and Luhrmann. 

Approached with moderated expectations, however, "Australia" does a decent job of killing three hours. The money is all up there on the screen, at least. Reminds me of the competent second tier of 1960s epics that slipped from memory as the credits rolled.

Kidman plays a proper Englishwoman who inherits a rundown outback ranch; Jackman is the cattle wrangler she hates at first sight and all that. The actors' chemistry existed only on paper, alas.

You get a trio of formulaic plots for the price of one: a western about a daring cattle roundup; the PC story of an Aboriginal child sought by white officials for cultural brainwashing; and the real-life military tale of the Japanese bombing of Darwin, Australia. There is a lot going on, which helps, as does Luhrmann's playful and "crazy vision," as Jackman puts it.

The movie has an obvious intermission point that, curiously, would have worked just fine as an ending. See what you think.

Extras on the "Australia" Blu-ray are in high-def. They include a couple of short scenes deleted for good reason; a making-of docu made for prerelease TV audiences; and some solid short films hosted by Luhrmann about the film's crafts, locations and cinematography.