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I’ve copped plenty of stick over the journey for my review of Saving Private Ryan, so much so that I was loathe to ever review the Hanks/Spielberg follow-up TV series, Band of Brothers. In fact, I must get around to writing that at some stage – I thought, however, after watching the latest effort from this pairing, The Pacific, that my thoughts on it had better be written before I chicken out. The Pacific, the massive 10-part TV series from HBO, Dreamworks and partially funded by Australian TV network Channel 7, has been given a stunning BluRay release, and I write this review based upon my experience watching this masterpiece of TV viewing. I did try and start watching this series when it was originally broadcast here in Australia on Channel 7 earlier in 2010, but they filled it with so many commercials the experience was ruined by the crass voices of advertising screaming at me to buy more fast food and carpets. Screw them, I thought to myself after the first and second episodes were screened as a single entity: I was so pissed that the series was ruined by commercials, I vowed not to watch it until I had a copy of the DVD or BluRay safely in my hands – I was given a copy for Christmas by my good wife Lisa, and recently, I sat down to watch the entire thing in a single sitting. My words of praise about Band Of Brothers were always going to take some beating, and I had my doubts about The Pacific’s ability to reach the heights achieved by that series. So is The Pacific a less-than-stellar TV series? Is it as action packed and visceral as BOB, or does it tend to water down the events of the Pacific theatre?

Click here to read more of our thoughts on The Pacific…

Earlier last year, the majority of film critics and audiences were blown away with director Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to The Dark Knight, Inception. Inception is a film we’ve already reviewed here at fernbyfilms.com, and you can follow this link to read it, but we thought we’d have a shot at giving you our thoughts on the BluRay presentation of the film, released back in December. Whether you like the film (or are among the twelve people on planet Earth who did not…. fools!) is irrelevant to your enjoyment of this BluRay version of the film, for it represents one of the formats most impressive visual and aural presentations to date.

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One of the true delights of my day here at fernbyfilms.com is the arrival of a new BluRay disc. While I don’t normally do reviews on the discs my films come on, I thought a quick word or three about the recent acquisition of Moulin Rouge on BluRay was appropriate considering the quality on offer here. Regular readers would be aware that Moulin Rouge is one of my Top Ten films, alongside Armageddon and Transformers. I loved it when it was released in 2001, and saw it a number of times in the cinema, and was among the first to purchase it on DVD a few years later. I even managed to score a signiature from one of the films cast (Caroline O’Connor, who played Nini Legs In The Air – otherwise known as the Can Can Dancer who reveals Satine’s love for Christian as “The penniless writer… oops, I mean sitar player” – signed my copy of the DVD!) as proof of my love for the film.

The DVD version of Moulin Rouge was a pretty decent effort from Fox, when it came out back in 2001, with a gorgeous transfer of the film, and a treasure trove of extras on disc 2. The 5.1 dts mix was thunderous, although complaints came in from the Region 1 viewers who complained of synch problems – no such drama here in Australia. For the BluRay release, director Baz Luhrmann went back into the editing suite to oversee a new colour timing transfer of the film, tweaked slightly for the HD format. As well as a new colour grading, Luhrmann also paid attention to some production errors that crept into the film: in particular some camera wobble during a key shot in a major song. By using technology to iron out some 2001-era wrinkles, and tinkering with some of the colour and contrast, Luhrmann has managed to make Moulin Rouge look even better on BluRay than it did originally in the cinema.

Click here to enter the world of the Moulin Rouge!!!

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Alongside Sherlock Holmes, the legend of Robin Hood is among the most popular story Hollywood likes to trot out from time to time; invariably with mixed results. Errol Flynn undoubtedly remains the chief of all Hoods, whilst US productions such as Prince Of Thieves (with big Kev Costner drawling his way through Middle England) remain inexplicably popular, if contextually inaccurate. The Robin Hood story has, to my mind, been pretty much hammered into the ground, set fire to, buried in a box, exhumed and hammered again. It seems like every other year, as regular as the Olympics, Robin Hood is reborn “for a new audience”, as if the story we’ve heard a hundred times need to be heard again. Yawn.

To find out more about Robin and his merry men, click here to read on!!!

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Okay, I’ll bite. I’m not a major computer game player. I dabbled a little with Doom, Quake and more recently some of the Halo products, but I’ve never been “into” games like many are: those addicted to the screen, the lives they inhabit online and on their computers seems to be a little insane to me. Nothing wrong with a rainy day third-person shooter to get you through the boredom, but to spend 24 hours a day on level 5 isn’t conducive to a normal social life. Plus, the wife gets a little testy with an hour or so in front of the screen on a weekend.

Click here to continue with our Gamer review… if you dare!!!

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The Films

Since we’ve already reviewed the original trilogy (in detail!) on this site, we’ll save ourselves the recap and simply provide a link for further reading.

The Video

I am pleased to announce that for the most part, the BluRay picture quality on these three films is astounding: with one exception. As has been mentioned on other websites since this collection’s release, Fellowship suffers from some post-production tinkering and the resulting image quality isn’t up to snuff when compared to Towers and Return. Muddy blacks, some soft edges and occasional artefacting indicates either a problem with the master, or an original intent issue by director Peter Jackson. According to other sources, the problem comes down to Peter Jackson’s original vision when completing Fellowship back before its release in 2001. In any case, that issue seems to have followed the US release onto our own PAL versions, although the problem will only cause issues to those with discerning eyes. The majority of viewers won’t notice much difference, but for those of you who do notice such things, you’ll probably be a little disappointed. Otherwise, Towers and Return look fabulous, with more detail and textures visible than even the almighty 2-disc Extended Versions were capable of delivering. Colours and detail levels on Fellowship aside, both the latter two films look as immaculate as they day they were filmed: and so they should.

The Audio

The great thing about BluRay is the fact that it provides the home viewer with the full, uncompressed, original audio track the way the director intended you to hear it. While the original DVD releases of these films included both a Dolby EX (on the theatricals) and a DTS-ES (on the Extended) soundtrack, and both of those were exceptionally good, they don’t compare to the raw thunderous power of the DTS-MA mix afforded these discs. The powerful bass, the well defined mid range and a delightful high end all find their fidelity of the highest order: no small feat when you consider the quantity of audio information on display here. The 6.1 discrete mix (unlike the 7.1 matrixed DTS mix from the Extended Version DVD’s) is astonishingly good, enveloping you in some of the best surround sound mixing work done in the last decade. Return’s bombastic charge of the Oliphants during the Battle Of Pelennor Fields is a keynote sequence for me, often played at full volume, rattling the windows and driving neighbours to distraction. Every squeak, clang and thud of battle is realistically produced, never sounding cluttered, yet still enabling the frenetic hectic carnage to unfold in an aurally accurate way.

Special Features

If you own the Theatrical DVD versions of these films, New Line have simply ported the bonus materials from that release onto a DVD in this set: one for each film. I’m not sure whether to be a little miffed at this or not, although considering Peter Jackson’s insistence that there’s plenty of new bonus footage material to come in the “uber-duber deluxe set” later on will reassure some that although this set isn’t perhaps the definitive BluRay experience, it’s going to be okay for those who don’t have those original DVD’s. If you’re new to Rings on disc, then the bonus materials here are fairly standard EPK stuff, limited to pretty much promoting, rather than explaining, the trilogy to newcomers. Long time fans will be disappointed, but newcomers might find things to enjoy. Overall, a little annoyed no new stuff was included to whet the appetite for The Hobbit or future Rings BluRay releases, but still worthwhile.

Overall

Taking into account the somewhat dismal presentation of the Fellowship video quality, and the superficial bonus material (on a DVD9), it’s fair to say that this BluRay release will appeal only to those who cannot wait for the eventual HD release of these films in their Extended format, or newcomers to the franchise.

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There are classic films. And then, there are classic films. The truly classic film defy both time and tide, surmount the detrimental jibes of critics, and remain an enduring legacy of a time when the world was innocent, and film-making accordingly thus. The Wizard of Oz, recently released on remastered BluRay disc, is one of those rare films that transcends both time and place, remaining in the firmament of genuinely classic films, and will remain so as long as humans stride the surface of this planet. The back-story of The Wizard of Oz is as enthralling a saga as the film itself, filled with the intrigue of actors ending up in hospital and receiving second degree burns. Troubles behind the scenes, however, hardly seem to touch this timeless classic, and it’s a testament to director Victor Fleming that the whole thing comes together as it does.

To follow the Yellow Brick Road and read more of our thoughts on the Wizards world, click here!!!

Is this BluRay the finest ever released?

Breaking from our mould of simply doing film reviews, today I thought I’d quickly mention my thoughts on the just released Avatar BluRay from Fox.We don’t normally do reviews on the DVD/BluRay’s themselves when we watch them, simply tell you what we thought of the actual film. But today, considering the hype and anticipation for this films release to the general public on digital disc, we thought we’d let you know what we think.

Fox’s BluRay releases have, to date, been exemplary, and I’m pleased to say that Avatar is not going to drop the ball now. This BluRay is, without doubt, the finest example of a film presentation on the format I’ve seen. To those uninitiated to the fabulous world of BluRay (I suggest you get acquainted, and soon!) this disc comes in a movie-only edition, without an extra feature to be seen. In a clever (read: greedy) move from Fox, they’ve decided to hold back the no doubt plentiful extra features on this film for a later release, no doubt to coincide with the 3D version that will come out next year (fingers crossed, anyway!). What this means is that those fans unwilling to wait until a full-fledged release to see their favourite film will have to double dip into their wallets to get any extra material on Avatar. While this is a concern, the bare-bones edition of the film, on a dual layer BluRay disc (otherwise known as a BD50, meaning it can hold 50Gb of data) has allowed Fox to give us the movie in it’s most pristine state.

With the entire disc held over for the film, the sound and picture quality on display here is of reference quality. If there is one film designed to sell home theatres in stores, it’s Avatar, and Fox have delivered what can only be described as the perfect marriage of sound and image in the digital format ever seen by human eyes. There is no digital artefacting whatsoever, no alaising or banding or edge enhancement to be seen. The audio, in stunning DTS-HD 5.1, is incredibly detailed and dense, a sonic assault for those of you with HD capable receivers. Alternate soundtracks, including a Dolby 2.0 Surround mix, are included for those without the proper audio decoding hardware, but if that’s all you got, then baby, you need to upgrade.

The picture quality, which was fairly benign on the quite dirty theatrical print I saw in Queensland all those months ago, is superb here. While the 2D version was released in a 2.35 aspect, the BluRay brings us the full IMAX resolution in a 1.78 aspect, which is the aspect James Cameron himself prefers. Colours, textures, shadows and detail leap off the screen, assault your eyeballs and ask you if you like it. You have no choice but to like it. Avatar is one of the cleanest, sharpest digital pictures I’ve ever seen.

For those of you wondering whether to invest in a BluRay HD system, then perhaps Avatar will be the tipping point for you. Its vibrant colour pallette is given the deluxe treatment, and the audio mix will have the very foundations of your house moving across the street. Apparently the DVD release of Avatar is also pretty schmick, but considering the limits of DVD (lossy audio and compressed image quality) I think BluRay is by far the only way you should witness this film.

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