Zombieland Blu-Ray Disc Review

The Video: B+

The Audio: A-

The Extras: B

Zombieland came to theaters in September of 09 and was very well reviewed.  It received a 89% rating at Rottentomatoes.

The Video: B+

The original footage was shot digitally so this is what you saw in theaters, if not better depending on the theater you saw it in.  It was shot on Sony’s HDCAM SR format.  The camera used could shoot some several frames per second, which allowed for the opening slow motion images.

The Audio: A-

The audio here is presented in DTS-HD 5.1. The track is very clear and plays an important part of the movie.  The 3D rules of living in Zombieland use the track very effectively.  The atmosphere of the storyline uses the soundtrack effectively as well.  Overall is this a pleasing soundtrack.

Extras: B

The extras included are two feature length commentaries.  One is an audio commentary with the writer, director, and actors, and the second is a picture in picture track.  There are two quick featturettes, one that is a general behind the scenes making of and the second focuses on the production design of the movie.

The audio track is interesting, there is good interplay between the commentators, and you learn a lot of interesting tid bits.  I was most surprised to learn that the movie was originally written as a TV pilot.  Therefore the movie is inherently set-up to have sequels.  Admittedly I am intregiued to see this as a TV show.

BD Live 2.0 is also available on this disc as well.

Overall is this is a very enjoyable movie and a disc that teaches a lot about how the movie came to be.

Other Blu-Ray Reviews you may enjoy:

Knocked Up

Pineapple Express

Be Kind Rewind – Blu-Ray Disc Review

Posted by Martin:

Be Kind Rewind

The Video: B+

The Audio: B

The Extras: B-

Be Kind Rewind starring Jack Black and Mos Def has an interesting premise, re-shooting famous movies on VHS.  On Rottentomatoes it received a 66% fresh rating. Roger Ebert gave it 2 1/2 stars.  Written and Directed by Micehel Gondry who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The Video: B+

I give this a B+ because a lot this movie is focused in VHS land.  And I have to admit there was something nostalgic about seeing that look.  The rest of the film is attractively shot.  The film is formatted in 2:35.1 and is video codec in VC-1.

The Audio: B

Encoded in DTS-HD Master 7.1 this is a well done track.  Again when the movie goes into VHS the sound goes with it, and I found that ejoyable.  It is a good mix.

The Extras: B-

There are a few extras here.   Included are:

• Passaic Mosaic
• Brooker T and The Michel Gondry
• Jack Black & Mos Def Improvise Songs
• A Conversation with Jack Black and Michel Gondry
• Fats was Born Here
• The Making of “Be Kind Rewind”
• Mos Def, Michel Gondry & Jean-Michel Bernard LIVE! – Tribute to Fats Waller
• Theatrical Trailer

The two I recommend are “Passaic Mosaic” which is a short clip about the town where the movie both occurs and is shot.  I found this to be a very touching and original piece.

“The Making of Be Kind Rewind” is a good behind the scenes feature.  A good balance of seeing how the director worked, along with the actors and the crew.  For 33 minutes you learn a lot about this original movie.

Overall, I could recommend renting this disc, but there is no need to add this one permanently to your collection.

Confessions of a Shopaholic Blu-Ray Review

By Martin:

Video: B

Audio: B

Extras: C

Confessions of a Shopaholic came out in Feburary to poor reviews.  It was based on two books by Sophie Kinsella.

The Video: B

The video here is good.  The focus is on bright, attractice fashion pieces, consequently the saturation can be distracting in certain places.  This is an acceptable image, but there is nothing to show off here.

The Audio: B

Encoded in DTS-HD, the audio is clear.  But this is a romantic comedy and not alot of use of the sound stange for surround sound.

The Extras: C

Not a lot here, the studio did not put much effort into this release.  There are six behind the scenes featturettes, which focus on the fashion design in the film, the green scarf that plays a big plot point, and few other parts of the movie.  There are deleted scenes most of them were wisley left out, I did like one where Rebecca gets a parttime job at a clothing store, that seemed to fit the rest of the movie.  There is also the standard outtake and blooper reel.  And lastly there are three music videos included Shontelle and Akon’s “Stuck with Each Other,” Trey Songz’ “Takes Time to Love,” and Jordyn Taylor’s “Accessory.”

If you are a fan of this film and the books then I could recommend purchasing this disc.  For everyone else if you are into romatic comedies then just rent this one.

Knocked Up Blu-Ray Disc Review

Posted by Martin:

The Video: B

The Audio: B

The Extras: B

Knocked Up
is another in a growing line of comedies by Judd Apatow.  Going back to the great Freaks and Geeks
television show and then beginning with The 40-Year-Old Virgin Apatow, along with Seth Rogan, seem to have created there own little brand of comedy. Knocked Up is in the same vein as the rest of his work, a dorky guy some how manages to snag a beautiful woman.  It was well reviewed when it came out in 2007.

The Video: B

The video is formatted in 1.85:1.  The transfer of the Eric Edwards cinematography work is done well.  This is not the most eye catching movie to see.  Some of the scenes seemed to be lit poorly that occur in Seth Rogan’s character’s house.  Can’t give this video an A, but this is a very clean transfer.

The Audio: B

The main audio is presented in DTS-HD.  This is a dialog driven movie, there are no action scenes.  DTS-HD may have been overkill here, but there are no complaints on the audio.

The Extras: B

There is a ton of stuff here, and for me it is too much stuff and poorly organized.  I prefer extras that don’t repeat each other and are well organized. A lot of the extras are edited gag reels from the set.  Here is what you get in terms of extras:

• Feature Commentary with Seth Rogan, Judd Apatow, and Bill Hader
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended/Alternative Scenes
• Line-O-Rama
• Beard-O-Rama
• Finding Ben Stone
• Gag Reel
• Kids on the Loose
• Directing the Director
• Gummy the 6th Roommate
• Roller Coaster Doc
• Kuni Files
• Kuni Gone Wild
• Topless Scenes
• Stripper Confidential
• Video Diaries
• RAw Footage
• Katherine Heigl Audition
• Loundon Wainwright III Scoring Session
• Loudon Wainwright III Live and McCabe’s

An extra of note would be “Finding Ben Stone”, this is a fake documentary of trying other actors out for the Seth Rogan part and how much of a jerk each actor was.  The funniest part of this bit is the opening when they have scenes with Michael Cera playing Rogan’s part.  That seemed so natural that I didn’t realize it was fake until a few minutes into the mockumentary. Very funny scenes with Michael Cera check that out.

This is a better commentary then the sloppy one they put together for Pineapple Express.  They added Apatow and Rogan added Bill Hader to the mix so that he could do impressions through out the commentary.  You do learn at the beginning of the commentary that the two children in the film are Apatow’s own kids, he discusses his decision to use them because child actors can seem very fake from time to time.  The two kids are cute in the film.

The parts with Loudon Wainwright I found enjoyable because you don’t usually see these sort of discussions about the music on a movie, and watching the performances is a nice touch.

Overall:

I enjoyed this movie more than I expected.  Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogan had good chemistry on screen together.  There are some interesting extras here and bits that are very funny, but there is just too much and a lot of it repeats on each other.  But if you have enjoyed other Judd Apatow movies I would recommend checking this disc out.

Other Blu-Ray disc reviews:

Quantum of Solace

Dirty Harry

Slumdog Millionaire

Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express Blu-Ray Review-Descent Extras

Posted by: Martin

The Video: B

The Audio: B

Extras: B

Pineapple Express
is another in a growing line of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogan comedies, others include the great Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin , and Knocked Up
.  It got pretty good reviews when it came out in August of 2008.

The Video: B

The video here is encoded in 1080P AVC, and is formatted in 2:35.1.  For a comedy this was a well shot film.  The opening black and white scene is wonderful in terms of it’s visual sharpness.  I won’t give this one an A though.  There were several times when either the transfer was soft and ever-so-slightly out of focus or the film was shot that way.  Either way I noticed some eyes were not in focus in a couple of shots.  The cinematography was excellent overall though out the film.

The Audio: B

The English audio is done in DoblyTrue HD 5.1.  Because this is a stoner film that is also part action film, the audio begins focused on the center dialog channel, and early in the movie I had to turn it up. But with the action ending my speakers were rattling the house.

The Extras: B

This disc comes with BD-Live funcality along with a ton of extras.  For true fans of this film they could pour over this for awhile.  I give the disc makers credit for adding rehearsal footage and read through footage, good things to see for aspiring actors and filmmakers.

The most half hearted commentary:

The audio commentary for me was disorganized and half-hearted.  Ed Begley Jr. literally leaves 15 minutes into the commentary!  I have never come across that before.  If you have please a note in the comment section.  The five minutes later two other actors walk into the room where they are recording the commentary, and to add a cherry on top a producer of the film literally phones in her commentary 25 minutes into the movie.  I felt that if the filmmakers weren’t going to care about making this commentary, then I shouldn’t care to listen to it.  Admittedly there are MANY bad commentaries out there, but there are also some great ones as well.  This is an example of how NOT to do a commentary.

Good Extras:

You will find good additional material here.  The making of Pineapple Express was the most informative piece.  It was interesting to learn that the movie was intended to be a mix of a stoner film with an action film, and that combination kept Rogan and Apatow from believing they could ever get the movie made.  This concept of the stoner/action film is repeated a lot in the messy audio commentary.

My favorite piece was on the action in Pineapple Express.  Normally this sort of wire work is highlighted in a Matrix film, but this teaches that even a simple act as carry a man on person’s back in a fight requires wires.  I loved how the camera followed the stunt coordinator around the room to show how the actors were going to fight in Red’s house.  A great five minutes of behind the scenes filmmaking school.  I would like to see more of this.

There is a five minute piece on Ed Begley’s cleaning company, Begley’s Best.  When I first saw this I thought it was an inside joke, but then I looked it up and he really does run a small environmentally focuses cleaning products company.  Good for him.

Other extras:

• Extended and Deleted Scenes
• Red-Line Trailer
• Marriage Tips from Red
• Raw Footage
• Saul’s Apartment
• Line-O-Rame
• Direct-O-Rama
• Gag Reels
• Item 9 Experiments
• Stunt Master Ken
• Injury Report
• Phone Booth
• Comic Con Panel

Overall:

If you are a fan of Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow comedies then you should buy this one, I would recommend adding this one to your Netflix queue.

Check out other Blu-Ray Disc Reviews:

Dirty Harry

Wall-E

Quantum of Solace

Role Models Blu-Ray Review

Posted by Martin:

Video: B

Audio: B

Extras: A

Role Models
is a pretty funny movie, not a classic, but pretty funny.  Although this has Paul Rudd in it who I typically find funny, this movie of course is funny because of the kids in the film.  Check out the reviews on the film.

The Video: B

The video here is a straight forward transfer of bland cinematography.  But then again extraordinary photography was not the focus or purpose of this film.  This is a good example of why simply 1080 P transfer does not necessarily make for a great image.  The basis for a great image is great cinematography.

The Audio: B

The audio is presented in DTS-HD so there is great clarity here for certain scenes, but this is not a disc with the need for extreme audio textures so DTS mix is not going to be tested here.

The Extras: A

The extras is where this disc shines.  This is a great single disc release in terms of extras.  On the disc you will find:

• Feature-length commentary with Director / Writer David Wain
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Takes
• Bloopers
• “On the Set of Role Models”
• “Game On: Creating a Role Playing World”
• “In Character and Off Script”
• BD-Live “My Scenes”
• BD-Live Documentaries
• BD-Live Ye Old Crest Maker
• Picture-in-Picture Cast and Crew Interviews

I wish they had included other cast members on the audio commentary.  Having just one person always seems eventually boring, having people play off of each other can make a commentary track more enjoy able.  I am thinking of the geek track on Wall-E right now as I type these words.

Of all the extras I found “Game On” and “In Character and Off Script” to be the two most enjoyable extras. Game on delves into the world of Live Role Playing Games, something that was new to me.  It was interesting to learn about the culture and how the filmmakers used this world in the film.

In Character and Off Script is a series of three skits, individual actors playing their character as if they were being interviewed for the disc.  The funniest is definately Kuzziack: Proud Xanthian.  Kuzziack is played by Joe Lo Truglio and seems to have a very good time playing the part.

Stay away from the Ye Old Crest Maker, a simple BD-Live Game where you make your own crest for a Live Role Playing Game, a complete waist of time.

Overall:

The movie is funny, but you will do better with other adult comedies out there right now.  But the extras are excellent and give a good sense of what went into making the movie.  Universal Studios did a good job with the extras on this disc.

Other Blu-Ray Disc Reviews:

Twilight

Dirty Harry

Kill Bill Vol. 1