tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56371759638930930982011-10-06T16:32:20.740ZSometimes Brutal. Always Honest.Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-24965206767054221472011-01-08T21:32:00.000Z2011-01-08T21:32:04.702Z

Well ermmm. No. HD-DVD kind of died (obviously) and for the last couple of years it's been Blu-Ray all the way.The good news is that I am now podcasting regularly every week, although the focus is purely on new Blu-Ray releases. The new "hub" for all the reviews can be found at UKBluRayReview.blogspot.com There you'll find the latest audio podcasts, together with links to written reviews of

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-663715685872293092008-04-20T15:34:00.002Z2008-04-20T15:37:42.613Z

The inferior format - Blu-Ray - won through sheer marketing muscle and money, but I'm not bitter!There are no new HD-DVD titles being released so this blog is effectively dead in the water. However if you're shifting over to Blu-Ray (or just sticking with standard DVD) check out my weekly Shiny Disk Show which reviews the new DVD and Blu-Ray releases each week.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-10593219073614515782007-10-28T09:18:00.000Z2007-10-28T09:39:50.506Z

I should have paid more attention to Rotten Tomatoes, whose summary of the professional critics, with a lowly 7% 'fresh' rating, gives a pretty clear warning that this clichéd, seriously sub-par horror film is a bit of a stinker.Somehow I got distracted by the slightly more optimistic public rating of 56% over at imdb, and the rather good box office figures, which make it clear that someone,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-81325003910648359842007-06-30T19:11:00.000Z2007-06-30T19:12:12.966Z

A three month contract in Ireland means I don't have access to my home theatre system or indeed the time to publish the full reviews this blog was set up to carry. However occasional "mini reviews" are appearing over on my personal blog in the meantime.Normal service will hopefully be resumed in late September 2007 when fuller reviews will be published here to tie in with the launch of the new

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-10644605469744272602007-04-10T05:57:00.000Z2007-04-10T05:58:53.480Z

The launch of titles on HD-DVD in the UK has been pretty pathetic, and it's only the strong batch of US releases on what is a region-free format that have kept HD-DVD alive. Typically all we've had officially released in the UK are some of the more mediocre US releases, selling at grossly inflated prices months after they've been available from import companies at a far cheaper price. It's small

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-4987595871278961362007-04-06T11:20:00.000Z2007-04-06T11:53:12.544Z

Robert de Niro's second film (as director), The Good Shepherd is still in British cinema's, even as it gets an HD-DVD release State-side. Unfortunately it's one of those nasty, rather expensive combo-releases where the standard DVD, but Region 1 only, features on the reverse side. Fortunately the high definition side, unlike the rival Blu-Ray format, is region free and with Universal being the

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-79883790399494292412007-04-03T06:01:00.000Z2007-04-03T06:03:44.438Z

With the advent of DVD and big screen TVs cinema attendance figures are falling, but one film genre remains buoyant - the one aimed at kids.CGI 'toons are the name of the game these days and although expensive to produce, the profits are so huge it seems everyone's jumping on the band wagon. It's unusual for kiddie-oriented fare to deliver less than 300 million dollars at the box office,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-16925199636463936722007-03-27T06:15:00.000Z2007-03-27T06:16:41.194Z

The Getaway is the second Steve McQueen classic to get an HD-DVD release from Warner Brothers, released day-and-date with Bullitt, which I reviewed on Saturday. Unfortunately it's by far the weakest of the two releases.Age hasn't been kind to the film, which may well have seemed innovative and daring when originally released, but now just seems dull. Very dull! Insomniac-curingly dull! Numerous

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-42388346073492962542007-03-24T11:25:00.000Z2007-03-24T14:52:30.189Z

Recently, I've begun to question my assumption that a DVD viewing at home is always better than the average cinema trip, an assumption built up after years of miserable experiences in rip-off London cinema's.Even with a top-notch plasma display, a THX sound system that places you in the middle of the action, a sterling DVD transfer, and comfortable, interruption-free viewing there are the odd

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-23394484570180971422007-03-10T23:59:00.000Z2007-03-11T00:23:35.341Z

If there was an overall loser at this year's American Academy Awards, it has to be Babel. Nominated for 'Best Film', 'Best Director', 'Best Supporting Actress' and 'Best Editing' the film came away with only a 'Best Music Score' oscar to show for all its efforts, despite having a story that would appear to have been specially crafted to appeal to the average Academy voter.For many critics in

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-30650767226685193042007-03-10T14:09:00.000Z2007-03-10T14:38:07.778Z

Beerfest is not made for the likes of me - my guess is it's intended for the sort of loud, obnoxious 'young, dumb and full of cum' American that's depicted throughout this film.Nevertheless it still comes as a surprise, and a huge disappointment, to see the likes of Donald Sutherland and Jurgen Prochnow reduced to having to perform cameos in such tosh. I hadn't realised these actors were so

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-19223689547193220062007-03-02T18:50:00.000Z2007-05-20T07:35:30.468Z

There are a whole group of people out there who think that if a movie has a twist, the movie IS the twist, and therefore if you 'get' the twist before it's officially presented that makes what you've just seen a poor movie. You only have to listen to the carping criticisms of friends who guessed the twist in M. Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense (we've all got them!) to 'know' this is true.So it's a

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-58947158907824458262007-02-24T15:47:00.000Z2007-02-24T16:13:09.157Z

This week sees not only the release of The Departed on standard DVD in the UK, but also the announcement of the winner of the 'Best Picture' and 'Best Director' awards at The Oscars, for which The Departed has been nominated (along with nominations for 'Best Supporting Actor', 'Best Adapted Screenplay', and 'Best Editing'). It seems that for most observers it's a shoo-in for the Best Director

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-9450412010667165202007-02-20T17:47:00.000Z2007-02-20T17:59:46.553Z

What is it with Hollywood? You don't get a film noir thriller set in 50's tinsel town for months and months, and then all-of-a-sudden two show up at once (I'll be reviewing The Black Dahlia on my UK DVD Review Blog later this week).Hollywoodland had its theatrical release just a few short months ago, when it was flagged by many critics as a potential oscar winner, if not for the film but for the

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-73965901031899473912007-02-11T16:23:00.000Z2007-02-11T20:50:36.241Z

The very first thing that needs to be said about this British HD-DVD version of 2006's Miami Vice is DO NOT BUY THIS HD-DVD!We've had ten years of being ripped off by incompetent, lazy British distributors who think that releasing inferior versions of American DVDs, stripped of extra's but sold at double the price is acceptable. This disc shows them doing the same thing with the HD-DVD format.

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-82744136528959432852007-02-10T19:51:00.000Z2007-02-11T19:26:19.060Z

On paper, this must have looked like a good idea. Take a parochially British, low-budget British cult 'horror' classic from 1977 that has dated rather badly, and remake it for a modern American audience.Alas, in practice, the remake of The Wicker Man has turned into something of a disaster, at least so far as the reviews (from both critics and the general public) are concerned. I don't think I've

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-55588542081486781432007-01-27T19:19:00.000Z2007-01-27T19:34:31.615Z

Casino is my first chance to really compare the difference between standard DVD and HD-DVD, since I bought the Special Edition DVD last year but somehow never got around to viewing it. By all accounts the transfer on that standard DVD was stunning, and indeed it is. But compare it to the HD-DVD version and the differences become obvious, even on a screen only capable of displaying 768i resolution

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-77521008383091801902007-01-20T08:22:00.000Z2007-01-20T08:38:49.929Z

This week has turned out to be quite a Kevin Smith week, with the writer/director's Clerks 2 being released on HD-DVD day-and-date with the UK Region 2 release of An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder on standard DVD. As you'll read over on my standard DVD blog later today An Evening... suffers from the classic cash-in sequel problems of the law of diminishing returns (and my, how they've

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-79331416881615597712007-01-14T09:58:00.000Z2007-01-14T10:38:03.252Z

The five most mendacious words in the history of cinema must surely be 'Based on a True Story'. The Coen Brothers famously made up a complete story and then carried the tag-line as an 'insiders joke' on their movie Fargo, but Wolf Creek isn't far off that complete fiction when claiming its story of Australian backpackers being captured and tortured to death is based on real life events. So, Yes,

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-20564446582562329712007-01-13T23:43:00.000Z2007-01-14T00:06:29.355Z

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is the first home-grown (British) HD-DVD I've bought in what has been an extremely lacklustre British line-up, at least when compared with American releases. The British purchase is justified partly by its relatively low price tag compared to some UK releases, and partly by the fact that, unlike its American equivalent, it's not a nasty 'combo' release

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-23729191090283080302007-01-13T14:57:00.000Z2007-01-13T15:19:02.237Z

It can't be much fun being M Night Shyamalan right now. Every director turns out a bad film once in a while, but rarely does that become an excuse for the sort of character assassination and rewriting of film history that we've witnessed with the release of Lady in the Water. For a classic example, take a listen to the podcast from the folks at The AV Forums where a round table discussion on the

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-13679800078582218092007-01-06T13:38:00.000Z2007-01-06T14:37:29.305Z

The film companies behind HD-DVD releases seem, for the most part, to have assumed that the potential audience for this 'early adopter' market consists almost entirely of 13 year-old boys who want brain dead blockbuster or horror fare. The lack of quality 'classic' releases is so bad that online forums are awash with 'explanations' that this is because HD-DVD cameras weren't around when the films

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-23805029098545159652007-01-06T12:55:00.000Z2007-01-06T13:11:21.517Z

The critics didn't like Derailed very much - an average RottenTomatoes score of nearly 21% would indicate the film is a real stinker.Normally I find myself siding with the critics over the general public (at least as represented over at imdb) where opinions differ, but in this case I think the critics were way too harsh, and the public got it right in giving it over 60%.The main criticisms

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5637175963893093098.post-70817328236222637142007-01-01T15:19:00.000Z2007-01-01T20:10:01.322Z

Oliver Stone hasn't exactly had an easy ride over the last couple of years.First there was the critical mauling that Alexander received - and rightly so! It was a mauling that even a hastily compiled Director's Cut, released on DVD day-and-date with the theatrical version, couldn't escape. (Footnote: apparently yet another version - the Unrated Final Cut - is due to hit HD-DVD at the end of next

Ianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13442419547110456696noreply@blogger.com0