Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music/Bill &Ted's Bogus Journey/Bill &Ted's Excellent Adventure

 

This set contains the three Bill & Ted films, or as some may call them, Keanu Reeves' other, other trilogy, on three separate Blu-Ray discs. It contains all three movies, 1989's Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, 1991's Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and 2020's Bill and Ted Face the Music. All three movies starred Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. The first two movies also starred George Carlin, and he appeared posthumously in the third film as a hologram. The franchise also featured recognizable actors such as William Sadler, Pam Grier, Holland Taylor, and Jayma Mays.

I will spend most of the review on the third and newest film, Bill & Ted Face the Music since the other two have been out long enough that most people who would get this have probably seen them multiple times. But, as a short synopsis, the first movie, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, was a late 1980s movie about two high-school slackers who could not play any instruments yet had a band whose music was fated to unite the world and become the philosophy that future civilizations relied on. It was also the movie that would make Keanu Reeves a household name and cause nearly everyone to question his casting in The Matrix about a decade later. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was the sequel that followed a couple of years later, that had an almost Terminator-like theme where evil robot versions of Bill and Ted were sent back to kill them and destroy their lives to keep them from having any influence on the future. The third movie, released in 2020, revealed that the duo, now in their 50s with daughters of their own, had yet to write the song that would unite the world, which put the future of all civilization at stake. That is about all you need to know about the plots of each movie.

The movies definitely fall within the realm of tongue-in-cheek comedy, with some deeper themes of family and friendship (especially in the third movie) weaved in. They are meant to be a kind of "stupid funny" and you can tell that the writers and the actors took their work seriously, nobody seemed to take themselves too seriously, which made all the movies work, despite all the movies having a different feel and tone from each other.

Each of the discs has an assortment of extras, including theatrical trailers for the first two movies, two different commentary tracks for the second movie, as well as a retrospective on the second movie that was filmed around the time that the third movie was being made. For the original movie, there was also (I kid you not) an air guitar tutorial/featurette, and for the most recent movie, the main bonus feature was a 45-minute portion of the virtual comic-con panel hosted by Kevin Smith, including the writers, producer, director, as well as Keanu, Alex Winters, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, and William Sadler.

Overall, the movies are all very good if you take them for what they are. They are not meant to be Academy Award-winning movies, just fun, fairly innocent, tongue-in-cheek comedies. I like that the third movie was able to get many of the serving original cast members from the first two movies back together and even found a way to provide a posthumous George Carlin cameo. I know that there are some people who thought making the third film without Carlin would never work, but in reality, he had a pretty small role in the first movie and even less of a role in the second movie (which really amounted to an extended cameo), so while he was a fun character from the original movies, he was not so integral to the story that they could not make a third movie without him. And, I think that the new cast members who were brought in did a good job with their parts, even those who were playing parts that were recast. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, the first movie especially will cause a bit of a nostalgia trip and the third movie provides a fitting end to the story. It is definitely worth the pickup for those who still get movies on physical discs.

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Apocalypse Now Final Cut

 

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 war movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Duvall, and Harrison Ford. It is, of course, the "other" iconic Francis Ford Coppola movie from the 1970s. While I do not think it is as good as either The Godfather or The Godfather Part II, it is still a very good movie. It is partly a commentary on the Vietnam War, partly an adaptation of the novel Heart of Darkness, and partly just weird. It centers around the character of Willard, played by a young (and very much looking like Charlie) Martin Sheen, who is on a mission to find and kill a rogue ex-Colonel named Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando. It also stars a very young Lawrence Fishburne and another Godfather Alum, Robert Duvall, as Kilgore (who has some of the best lines in the movie) and Dennis Hopper as a crazy photojournalist. It is not per-se an anti-war film but does make statements (some subtle, some not) about the absurdity of the Vietnam War. It definitely gets weird at times, especially after Brando's character shows up about 2/3 of the way through the movie.

The 4k set is a six-disc set containing two UHD discs and four regular Blu-Ray discs. It includes the theatrical version of the film, which is about 2.5 hours long, the Redux cut, which is about 3 hours and 16 minutes long, and the Final cut, which is just over 3 hours long. Each version is both on a UHD disc and a regular Blu-ray. There are a ton of extras, some of which are new, and some which are carried over from prior DVD releases of the movie, including a discussion between Martin Sheen and Coppola, which was done in 2010 for a prior release, a 1936 radio broadcast of Heart of Darkness (which was a huge inspiration for the movie) narrated by Orson Wells, deleted scenes, and much more. There is also a commentary track by Coppola on the Redux version of the movie, which gives a lot of insight into the process of making the movie, including how George Lucas was supposed to direct it before he started making Star Wars and how Coppola made a lot of it up as he was shooting the movie, and was not working off a finished script.

It is definitely not a movie that everyone will like. But if you are a fan of the movie, the actors, and/or the director and especially love when a lot of bonus material is available, it looks and sounds great. And you get every possible variation of the movie that will ever be put out. It is a must-get, even if you have one of the earlier releases.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

 

This set contains the seven "main" Nightmare on Elm Street movies, including the 1984 original movie, 1985's Part 2 (Freddy's Revenge), 1987's Part 3 (Dream Warriors), 1988's Part 4 (The Dream Master), 1989's Part 5 (The Dream Child), 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and 1994's Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The original film was written and directed by Wes Craven and starred Robert Englund (in the iconic role of Freddy Kruger), Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thomson, Johnny Depp (in his first movie role), and John Saxon. Craven would mostly bow out of the series until the final movie, New Nightmare, which he also wrote and directed (although he was a co-writer of the screenplay for Part III). Langenkamp would appear in three of the seven movies, and Englund appeared in all of them. This set does not contain the Freddy vs. Jason crossover movie with Friday the 13th, nor does it have the 2010 remake. All of the movies are centered around Freddy Kruger, who was a serial killer of children in life and who, after he was burned alive by the parents of the town he lived in, was able to return as a supernatural killer who could enter and kill in a person's dreams.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the definitive horror movie franchises in the 1980s. It definitely suffered from what almost all of the series, like Halloween and Friday the 13th, did: It got too bloated and too goofy, to the point where there were more bad movies in the series than good ones. The one constant throughout, however, was the fact that Robert Englund made Freddy cool and funny and maximized his time on the screen. Not surprisingly, the three best movies were the ones in which Heather Langenkamp was involved either playing Nancy (in Parts I and  II) or herself (In a New Nightmare). Also not surprisingly the two best were the first and last movies in the series where Wes Craven was directly involved as the writer and director. In fact, the best movie of the series, in my opinion, was the final film, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which blended the fictional characters with the lives of real-life actors. In fact in that movie Freddy probably had the least "personality" but was far scarier when he was onscreen.

This is a five-disc set (Parts 4 and 5 share a single disc, as does Freddy's Dead and A New Nightmare). The movies all look okay on Blu-ray. Given how old they are and the fact that most of the movies were made before CGI was really well developed, most of the movies do not look anywhere near as good as more recent movies do (and HD sometimes amplifies the fakeness of the effects). Some of the effects are pretty cheesy, and although I think they did about as good a job with the transfer absent a complete restoration as possible, there are limitations with movies this old. The original movie is on its own disc, then each subsequent disc has two movies. 

Each of the discs has bonus content for the movie or movies on that particular disc. The last disc is a DVD of bonus material that has between 3 and 4 hours of additional bonus content. It looks like most (but not all) of the bonus material was carried over from the various DVD releases that have been put out over time, as opposed to newly created for this release. The first movie has the most bonus content, and then it tails off somewhat after that. Most of the bonus material is behind-the-scenes features with the actors or filmmakers of the particular movies. Each movie has at least one commentary track and then there are some deleted and alternate scenes for some of the movies. The Bonus DVD also includes a couple episodes from the (really bad) Nightmare on Elm Street TV series. and some more behind the story kind of features.  All in all though, if you are a more casual fan of the series and do not need every single extra in existence and just mainly want the movies, then it is worth adding to your collection.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Modern Family: Seasons 1-4

 

Modern Family is a wonderful comedy that aired on ABC from 2009 to 2020, starring Ed O'Neil, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Sarah Hyland, Eric Stonestreet, Nolan Gould, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rico Rodriguez, Aubrey Anderson, Ariel Winter, and Sofia Vergara. This is a blu-ray box set of seasons 1-4. If you have not seen the series but have heard how great it is, believe it. It is one of the funniest shows on television. The easy comparisons to make are to shows like The Office, Parks and Rec, and Arrested Development. If you like any of those shows, then you will probably like this one as well. But I would say it is a blend of those two with a little bit of  Married With Children and the shows it was making fun of, like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, etc, then you would get Modern Family. It has a message of family love and togetherness that the more sappy 1980s sitcoms had, with a little bit of the dysfunction of Arrested Development or Married With Children sprinkled in. But part of the reason it is so funny is because you can buy it as being a "real" family dealing with real situations. In fact, a lot of the moments that are put into the show are based on the writers' real experiences.

The series tells the story of a family headed by Jay Pritchett (played wonderfully by Ed O'Neil), his daughter and her family, his gay son and his partner and their adopted daughter, and his "trophy wife" and stepson. Sometimes, the entire family interacts with each other, and sometimes, it is the members of the individual families. They are interviewed documentary style (for a reason that is not really explained) and those are cut into whatever story is playing out. The comedy is not as off-color as it could get in Arrested Development or Married With Children, but there are times when you definitely are surprised at what they get away with. It does have a similar flow to The Office and Parks and Rec, where the jokes could combine what someone is saying, someone else reacting, and something visual in the background.

O'Neil is definitely the most well-known cast member. It is hard to hear him without thinking of Al Bundy, but the character is very different. He is more like a crusty old grandpa in this one, whereas Al Bundy was a middle-aged loser. Julie Bowen and Ty Burell have great chemistry and play off each other so well. I honestly think their interactions make the show work as well as it does. Even though the show is the definition of an ensemble cast, it gives all the characters great stories to work with, even though there are times when an episode is devoted to one or two characters over the others.

As far as this set. Unlike some season packs where you just get the individual season sets packaged separately, this has all 12 discs in one flip/keep case. Kind of like how the individual season sets would be packaged just in one large case. The discs play fine in US blu-ray players as long as you update the firmware on your player. Unlike what the one-star reviewers on Amazon seemed to think, they are coded to be able to play in the US (the set appears to be Region Free), but if you have not updated the firmware on your player (presuming you have one that can be updated), they may not play. I believe that this set is now out of print, and the subsequent seasons were all released on DVD. The A/V quality of the blu-ray is good, but it is not really a show that necessarily needs to be seen in HD. 

Each season has deleted scenes and family interviews on each disc. The third disc of each season set has all the behind-the-scenes and making-of features, and there are commentary tracks on select episodes. In all, I would say the extras for each season amount to around 45 min of material, give or take. Definitely enough to make those who like going through that stuff happy. I came late to this show, and I am glad I listened to the people who said how great it was. If you like slightly off-beat sitcoms, this is definitely worth checking out.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: The Ultimate Matrix Collection

 

This is a six-disc box set with the original Matrix trilogy (1999's The Matrix and 2003's The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions). It also includes the set of animated shorts, The Animatrix, which fleshed out the content in the movies). The movies starred Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving and included a strong supporting cast including Harry Lennix, Gloria Foster, Lambert Wilson, Monica Bellucci, and Joe Pantoliano, to name just a few. 

The Matrix franchise has been around long enough now that pretty much everyone knows the story. In a war between humans and machines, humans lost and were used as batteries to power the machines. A few formed a resistance and continued the war in an almost covert fashion (or so we are led to think).
The first movie was truly groundbreaking, both in the story (let's face it, it was one of the few original movies of its time that was not a reboot or sequel) and in terms of special effects. The whole "bullet time" concept that they used to give characters powers in The Matrix was like nothing that we had seen up to that point. Yes, CGI and digital effects have evolved in a huge way since then, but the original film was really the bridge between what was being done in films like Blade to what you got in the Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings movies, and almost every sci-fi/fantasy movie out now.

Most of the criticism of the movies themselves tends to center around the continuation of the story in Reloaded and Revolutions. Although given that the anticipation for the Matrix sequels rivaled that for the Star Wars Prequels (which also came out at the same time) given the popularity of the original film, I honestly don't know what story they could have told that would satisfy everybody. In some ways I do think the filmmakers had the Lucas complex of falling too much in love with the CGI, especially since at that point they did not have the technology to make the digital characters look as real as Gollum in LOTR, so during the burly brawl in Reloaded when they switch from the actors to all digital it looks like a video game. I personally however think the story continuation that was done in the 2nd and 3rd films is better upon repeated viewings than when I originally saw them in the theater.

What makes the set shine however is the tons of bonus material. For each 2 hr movie, you get anywhere from 3-4 hrs of bonus content per disc. There are multiple commentaries on each movie and several making-of and behind-the-scenes features for each movie. The extras include a lot of explanation of the digital effects and why the filmmakers and crew did things the way they did and a great look at the stunts and the training that all the actors did to do as much of the fight sequences and wire work as they could. Say what you want about Keanu Reeves's acting ability, but he busted his ass when it came to training to do the fight sequences which were of course the staple of his character.

Aside from the bonus material on each movie disc, you get all the Animatrix features that fleshed out the story (both before the original movie showing how the war started) and in between the films where we got bits and pieces of information but not the entire story. Plus you get a bunch of bonus material on how the animatrix stories were made. Finally, there are 2 discs that revolve more around the story itself, how the filmmakers came up with the story, and some of the early concept art, as well as the featurettes from the video game. So if you are one who loves going through the bonus material on the discs then you will be extremely happy with all you get, because you can spend hours upon hours with all that is there.

The A/V quality of the movies on blu ray is very good. There are some limitations because of the fact that the movies are older now (with the first movie being about 15 years old), but they are better on blu-ray than the original DVD releases. I would say that this set really is for hardcore fans of the series overall. If you hated the second and third movies as some do, then you are far better off getting the stand-alone Matrix blu ray and being done with that. Because that is only a small part of what you will get in this set. If you like the other movies but do not really care about going through all the bonus material then you probably just want to stick with the movie trilogy. But if you want to get the entire experience, then you cannot go wrong with what is here.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Lethal Weapon Collection

 

This is a five-disc set with the four original Lethal Weapon series of buddy-cop movies (1987's Lethal Weapon, 1989's Lethal Weapon 2, 1992's Lethal Weapon 3, and 1998's Lethal Weapon 4). All of the movies starred Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh. Throughout the series, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan,  Joe Peschi (who would be a co-star in parts 2-4), Patsy Kensit, Renee Ruso (who would co-star in parts 3 and 4), Chris Rock, and Jet Li (among others) would co-star.  It should be noted that this set only contains the theatrical versions of the movies. If you strongly prefer the extended editions of the movies, which to this point are only available on DVD, then you will probably want to steer clear of the Blu-ray set. It does, however, include the extended scenes (for films 1-3) included as bonus material on the disc for that movie. 

As I said above, there are 5 discs in all in this set. There is one disc for each movie, and then a 5th disc that contains 4 separate featurettes (one for each movie) which is essentially a 25th-anniversary commemorative documentary, with the highlight being a sit-down interview with Donner, Gibson, and Glover, interspersed with interviews from some of the other actors (mainly Renee Russo and Chris Rock) and filmmakers from the series. They also weave in some footage from the filming of each movie. In all the bonus disc has about 2hrs worth of additional material. The bonus material on Lethal Weapon 4's disc is a 30 min compilation of alternate and deleted scenes and gag reel material from each movie. So between the 4 movies, all the deleted scenes and bonus material there is about 10.5 hrs worth of content for those who go through all the extra features.

As far as the quality of the movies goes. Obviously, the A/V quality is better in the 4th movie than any of the others. You can tell there was no heavy film restoration done, so the movies pretty much look exactly the same as they always have. So, you are not getting the great jump in picture quality that you would get from movies that have a ton of CGI or released more recently. That is why sticking with the DVDs for those who prefer the extended editions of the movies is fine. I am not sure that the material included on the bonus disc is out there on the DVD releases though so you may want to take that into consideration. Hopefully, at some point, especially if a fifth movie gets made, there will be 4k restorations of all the movies, but that remains to be seen.

Overall, I am very happy with the set and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the series, especially those of us who are old enough to have seen all (or, in my case, the last three) of the movies in the theater when they were originally released. The movies mostly hold up well, but some of the dialogue (especially from the first two movies), is cheesy and/or would be considered non-PC these days. Even so, they still hold up as movies with great action blended with comedy and drama.

Blu-Ray/Movies Box Set Review: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection

 

This is a set that contains some but does not contain all, of Hitchcock's movies Depending on what you consider his best movies to be, this may not contain your favorites. Nor do each of the movies have perfect video and audio. The 15 movies included in this collection (each on separate discs) are Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot. 

There are a lot of reviewers on Amazon pissed at Universal for not restoring all of them. I am never one who expects movies that old to look as good as something made today, so the grain and glitches in the video that you occasionally see do not bother me all that much. In fact, some movie purists enjoy seeing grain and imperfections that are common to movies that were shot on film. That said, some movies have a wonderful restoration (e.g., Sabotuer), others have a good to very good restorations (e.g., The Birds, Rear Window, and Psycho), while others (e.g., Family Plot) have a very bad transfer. The films that have been restored like Rear Window do look great, however. 

I also think the extras that you get on each movie are very good. The documentaries which have interviews with the remaining stars, filmmakers, and Hitchcock family members are very good. I don't really know how this compares to the DVDs that are already out there. You probably want to research whether this will be that much of an upgrade to what you already have if you own any of the movies included here. That said I do like the collection and am very happy with it.

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: House M.D., The Complete Collection

 

This is a region-free import of the complete series of House M.D. on blu-ray. As most fans of the show are aware (at least those who are also fans of physical media), in the United States, the first five seasons of House were released on DVD and the final three seasons were released on blu-ray. But, the older seasons of the show were never released on blu-ray and there was never a complete US series release on blu-ray. To my knowledge, this is the easiest and most cost-effective way to get the entire series on blu-ray. While it is an import from Japan, the discs do play in region 1 (US region) blu-ray players and it does have captions in English on the episodes, but not on the special features.

House was a hit medical drama that aired from 2004 through 2012 starring Hugh Laurie as Gregory House, a brilliant, acerbic diagnostician at a fictional hospital in New Jersey who was addicted to Vicodin, hated seeing patients, insulted them (and his team of doctors) mercilessly when he had to interact with them, and thought everyone is a lying idiot. His team (in the early seasons) included doctors Cameron (played by Jennifer Morrison), Chase (played by Jesse Spencer), and Foreman (played by Omar Epps). In Later seasons Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn, Odette Annabele, and Charline Yi would also play members of House's diagnostics team. House's only friend is an oncologist named James Wilson (played by Robert Sean Leonard), and the hospital administrator, Lisa Cuddy, who is always butting heads with House is played by Lisa Edelstein. 

The show was mostly a case-of-the-week procedural drama in which the team was presented with a patient with some weird medical issue that no one else could diagnose. Intertwined within the weekly cases were serial arcs that sometimes involved House pissing off the wrong person, the lives of one or more of the team members, or the like. The first seven seasons of the show were great. Season 8 is not as good because a pot point from season seven never truly gets resolved in a satisfying way. That said, the series has a nearly perfect ending.

The blu ray set has 39 discs, all of which are in huge keep cases. They are, unfortunately, the kinds of cases that require two discs to be stacked on top of each other, and the discs can on some tabs come loose and fall off and on others be damn near impossible to get off. The blu-ray set does have all of the same special features, including interviews, commentary tracks, gag reels, deleted scenes, etc., that were released on the US DVD and blu-ray releases. The A/V transfer of the early seasons is okay, but not great. The final three seasons which got original blu-ray releases have a much better A/V quality. The blu-ray menus are very bare bones and are hard to navigate at first, and the titles of the episodes are not listed on the menus. The only change to the episodes themselves is that the theme that plays over the opening credits is different than the one that played in the US (it is the European version).

Overall, the show is great. It is probably the best medical drama after ER (which is the medical drama by which I compare all others) that I have seen. It was well-written and very well-acted. It could be suspenseful, sad, and funny, all within the same episode. The show also got a lot of great guest and recurring stars throughout its run, some of whom were very well-known (e.g., James Earl Jones, Candice Bergen, and Sela Ward), and some for whom the show was one of their big breaks (e.g., Wentworth Miller, Dominic Purcell, Amanda Seyfried, Michael B. Jordan, Elle Fanning, Jeremy Renner, etc.). If you are a fan of the show, this is definitely worth the pickup.

Blu-Ray/ TV Series Review: Prison Break: Seasons 1-4 and Event Series Collection

 

The marketing of this set calls it a complete series, and it is almost the complete series. The made-for-TV movie called "The Final Break" which is set between a time jump that occurs in the original series finale is missing from the set. So, this set is really just a repackaging of seasons 1-4 of the show and the limited event series, which is essentially the fifth season. The Final Break movie is a bit out of place given that the show did get revived for the fifth season, but that is available separately on Blu-Ray for those who want it.

Prison Break was a show that aired from 2005-2009 on FOX (for its original run) and then was revived in 2017 for a nine-episode run. It was insanely popular during the first season, and its popularity started to wane as the seasons went on. The series opens with a man named Michael Schofield, played by Wentworth Miller, committing armed robbery and waiting for the police to arrive and arrest him. The show then fast forwards through the trial to his conviction and he is then sentenced to Fox River State Penitentiary, where we learn that his brother Lincoln Burrows, Played by Dominic Purcell, is on death row for the murder of the Vice President of the United States' brother. Michael is convinced Lincoln is innocent, and also happens to be a structural engineer who has tattooed the plans for the prison all over his body. He then hatches an elaborate plan, that takes place over the course of the season, to escape with his brother. It is only a slight spoiler to say that the escape happens, and the subsequent seasons involve the escapees (there are more than two) trying to evade capture, and Michael trying to uncover the conspiracy that led to his brother being framed for murder. 

As I noted, this just has the individual seasons packaged in one set. So if you already bought the blu-rays, you are not getting anything more from this set aside from the collectible outer box. Thus, the A/V quality of the seasons is the same (and very good) and all of the extras (which are extensive, especially in the early seasons) carry over. There are commentary tracks on several episodes throughout the series, making of featurettes, deleted scenes, and the like. 

The series is very good overall but does have its ups and downs. Season 3 was probably the worst season of the bunch, and I personally thought that the limited event series was unnecessary. Miller and Purcell did a great job as the series leads, and the show had a strong supporting cast throughout its run that included Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper, Robin Tunney, Peter Stormare, Wade Williams, Sarah Wayne Callies, Paul Adelstein, William Fichtner, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Michael Rappaport. While the show did take some logical leaps, it was mostly well-written and always well-acted. So, if you like crime dramas that have longer and more involved serial arcs as opposed to procedurals that wrap up a case at the end of each episode, this is a good one. It is a good show to binge because there are a lot of twists and turns and callbacks to things that occurred in prior episodes. It is definitely worth watching. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)

 

The Hannibal Lecter collection contains three original movies featuring the character Hannibal Lecter- 1986's Manhunter, 1991's Silence of the Lambs, and the 2001 sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal. Manhunter was made in 1986 and starred Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter and William Petersen as Will Grahm. It is basically the Red Dragon story that would be remade years later with Hopkins in the role of Lecter with a much different tone and feel. There are some that think Manhunter is the best movie adaptation of any of the Thomas Harris novels, but I generally prefer the Hopkins movies, probably because I saw Silence of the Lambs first. Silence of the Lambs was the classic 1991 film that starred Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, a young FBI agent who used Lecter's knowledge to help capture a serial killer named Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine. It was definitely more of a thriller than it was a horror movie. There are some gory parts, but nothing akin to say the Saw franchise. It is much more of an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller than it is anything else. Hannibal is the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, with Julianne Moore taking over the role of Clarice trying to track down Lecter, as was his last surviving victim, Mason Verger, played by Gary Oldman. While this does have the psychological thriller element to it, it is much gorier than Silence of the Lambs was. While Moore did a good job as Clarice, it was definitely not the same without Jodie Foster in that role, and I think the movie suffered somewhat because of it.

The Blu-Ray set is a three-disc set containing one disc for each film. The A/V quality of the movies is good, but none of them got a high-quality HD upgrade. Regarding extras, there are trailers for Manhunter and Hannibal, but that is it. Silence of the Lambs carries over the extras from its initial DVD release, including a picture-in-picture commentary track on the movie that includes interviews with the cast members as the movie plays. Then there are several behind-the-scenes and making-of documentaries that range from about 8-minutes to over an hour. Then you get a bunch of deleted scenes, outtakes, trailers, and TV spots for the movie. So, there are a lot of good extras for that movie, but little to nothing for the other two, which is a shame.

Overall, this is a good collection. Of course, Silence is largely considered one of the best movies of all time. It is interesting to see the original Manhunter movie given that it was never a widely acclaimed movie, especially for those of us who were way too young to see it when it first came out. Hannibal is a good movie, but nowhere near as good as Silence. So, those are things that you should take into consideration when deciding whether to get this set or just get Silence on its own.

Blu-Ray Review: Superman the Complete Animated Series

 

Superman, the animated series aired in the mid-1990s. It was created and produced by the same team that created the very popular Batman: The Animated Series, and then expanded out into Batman Beyond and Justice League (after this series aired). It aired for three seasons with a total of 54 episodes and starred Tim Daily as the voice of Superman, Dana Delaney as the voice of Lois Lane, and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor. It also sported a very strong supporting cast including Malcolm McDowell, Joely Fisher, Lisa Edelstein, and Brad Garrett (among others). And, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprised their roles as Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn from the Batman series.

The show was, by design, a lot different both in terms of feel and look from the Batman series. The look of the series was inspired both by the Jack Kirby comics and the Max Fleischer animated series from the 1960s. The creators made the choice to have a vulnerable version of Superman that could be hurt, even by things that did not hurt him in other incarnations of the character. This put him on more of a level playing field with the villains. While some episodes referred back to prior episodes and there were some two and even three-part episodes during the run of the series, the episodes were mostly stand-alone so that you did not necessarily have to remember what was going on in a first season episode to get what was going on during a third season episode. Not that it is a big issue when you can watch every episode back to back.

As most hardcore fans are aware, this set was released on DVD years ago. This is the first time it has been on Blu-Ray. The big upgrade you get from the DVD set is that this one does not have the double-sided discs that the DVD set had. In the DVD set, each season had three discs. The first disc for each season was normal, but for some reason discs, 2 and 3 of each season were double-sided, which of course leads to the possibility of discs getting scratched up. Thankfully, this set corrects that. The 54 episodes are spread out over six discs. They did not break the discs up by seasons at all, just had them numbered 1-54. The one downside to the Blu-Ray set is that while most of the bonus material carried over from the DVD set, not all of the commentary tracks were put on the Blu-Ray set. On the DVD and the Blu-Ray, there are commentary tracks for selected episodes. However, there are a few commentary tracks that were included on the DVD set that are not on the Blu-Ray set. So, if you are a fan of the bonus features you may want to hold on to your DVD set. Otherwise, all the making-of and behind-the-scenes features that were included in the DVD set did carry over.

As far as the A/V quality goes, it was cleaned up, but I would not say the transfer was as quality as some older movies have gotten. The WB intro just before the episodes start did not get scaled up so when each episode starts it looks like it will be in standard definition, but from the opening credits on, you can definitely tell the video has been upgraded. 

Overall, the show is very good. It is definitely not just a "kids show" and at times does get very dark (especially toward the end). The series ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Not so much a cliffhanger in terms of character danger, but would have taken the show in somewhat of a new direction had the series not been canceled. If you are a fan of Superman or specifically this series, it is definitely worth picking up.

Product Review: Batman 4K Collection

 

This is, of course, the set of original Batman movies, (i.e. prior to the Nolan trilogy reboot) consisting of the two movies directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton, and the two Joel Schumacher movies which nearly killed off the franchise as a whole. The a/v quality of the 4k release is much improved for all the movies, especially over the DVD box set put out years ago. There are a ton of bonus features, the best of which, in my opinion, is the "Shadows of The Bat" feature which is a multi-part telling of the history of Batman, which spans across all the discs. There are also commentary tracks on each movie and a ton of behind-the-scenes and making-of features. I believe they are carried over

from the prior releases, both the prior DVD box set release, and the prior blu-ray releases, so the upgrade to 4k is really the only reason to get this set. For the people who despise Batman Forever, and/or Batman and Robin, you do have the option of purchasing the discs individually, so you do not have to pay for whatever movie(s) you do not want.

Batman (1989):

This is really the movie that reinvigorated the superhero genre since the Superman movies had puttered out with the release of Superman IV (which was pretty much the Batman & Robin of that series). Michael Keaton was a very controversial choice to play Batman, having a mostly comedy background, a lot of people did not think he could pull it off. Thankfully, the casting and lead-up were pre-internet trolling so the whining was kept to a minimum. Nevertheless, he did a great job in the role, especially playing Bruce with the right level of emotional turmoil. It was harder to buy him as Batman given 

that he really did not get into the kind of shape that actors in the superhero movies of today (at least some of them, e.g. Chris Evans) have to get into, but the suit did a pretty good job of disguising that.

The scene-stealer of the movie was, of course, Jack Nicholson, who played The Joker. He did, up until Heath Ledger, the best live-action Joker playing him with the right mix of sadistic and goofball. The remaining supporting cast included Kim Bassinger as Viki Vale, Rober Whul as reporter Alexander Knox, Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent (which would later be recast in Batman Forever), and Jack Palance as crime boss Carl Grisson. Michael Gough and Pat Hingle are the two constants throughout the pre-Nolan Trilogy movies, playing Alfred and Commissioner Gordon. It was in part an origin story for Bruce Wayne/Batman and in part an origin story for Joker, and a Batman vs. Joker for control of, vs. saving Gotham City. It did deviate from the story of the comics somewhat, which some people did not like, but I think the twists were fine. While it was somewhat of a formulaic plot,I think it was well written and acted, and overall a very enjoyable movie. Probably the best of the original run of Batman movies, although Batman Returns is a very close second. The extras for this set are all on the blu ray disc, and are as described above. Some that are specific to just this movie are the Robin sequence storyboard (which was considered, but ultimately dumped for this movie) voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill who were voicing Batman and Joker in the animated series at that point, three Prince music videos who contributed to the soundtrack, and the trailer for the movie.

Batman Returns (1992)

This is, of course, the sequel to the 1989 movie, and a heavily anticipated follow-up. It was the second, and sadly last, movie directed by Tim Burton, and with Michael Keaton in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. There were three villains this time, in the form of Penguin (played by Danny DeVito), Catwoman (played by Michelle Pfeiffer), and Max Schreck (played by Christopher Walken). The last of which was not a part of the comic books but solely made up for the movie. All three actors did a great job in their roles. Pfeiffer was all the more impressive as she was a last-minute addition to the cast since the role was supposed to go to Annette Benning, who got pregnant just before production started. It is a much more "adult" movie, with more violence and a ton of sexual innuendo. It was moving away from a "family-friendly" or "kid movie" genre, and ultimately led to Warner Brothers and Tim Burton splitting, seemingly amicably, and would ultimately lead to Keaton leaving the role (as he was only going to keep going if Burton was directing), and throwing the franchise into chaos.

The extras are much as for the first disc. All carryovers (including the original behind-the-scenes feature that aired on TV to promote the movie) from the prior DVD and blu-ray releases. The UHD disc just has the movie itself (and the commentary track on the movie). All the other extras are on the blu-ray. A lot of material, but nothing new for the UHD release, so the upgrade to 4k (which looks and sounds great) is the only reason to pick this up. 

Batman Forever (1995)

This is the movie that saw the turning point for the franchise, away from the darker version and tone that Tim Burton had set for the franchise with the first two movies, toward the more kid-friendly, almost campy return to the tone of the 1960s TV show, that would be completed in the horrible Batman and Robin a few years later. While Batman Forever was not a horrible movie, it just lacked any sense of continuity from the earlier films (aside from Alfred and Commissioner Gordon returning with the same actors). The look, the feel, and the tone of the franchise abruptly shifted, and ultimately started turning off the fanbase. That, of course, is said in a lot of hindsight knowing what was to come. When the movie opened, it was a huge hit (in large part because of Jim Carey's fame at the time, and the fact that the title song, Kiss From A Rose, became a major hit. I do think Val Kilmer did a fine job playing the duality of Bruce Wayne and Batman, and with Bruce being almost a neurotic loner who cannot stop being Batman.

The movie was really about the villains this time. Jim Carey was really at the height of his fame after leading in The Mask and Ace Ventura, playing The Riddler. He brought his hammy overacting that was really his hallmark at that point to the role, and for what Joel Schumacher was going for, it worked. Tommy Lee Jones did a good job with what he was given with Two-Face, but for some reason, the role was written more like The Joker than the Two-Face as written in The Animated Series or Nolan's trilogy, which worked much better (in my opinion). 

Like the other movies, the extras (aside from the commentary track) are all on the regular blu-ray disc and are all carryovers from prior releases. The movie does look and sound good on the UHD format, although I would not say the restoration was as great as it could have been (like the Matrix Trilogy was). The extras include behind-the-scenes and making-of features, as well as the trailer, and the music video for Kiss From a Rose. 

Batman & Robin (1997)

The best way to describe this movie is hot garbage. It took all the bad parts of Batman Forever, the bad writing, hokey overacting, stupid sound effects and jokes, the campiness, the glowing paint, etc., and dialed them up even farther. Honestly, nipples on the Batsuit, which got people all riled up about the movie back then were the least of the problems. It pretty much seemed like everyone involved in the movie was just going through the motions. Of course, it pretty well killed off the live-action Batman franchise until Christopher Nolan rebooted everything. Part of the movie's issue was that it was rushed into production to capitalize on the unexpected success of Batman Forever, but one of the biggest things that hurt the movie was yet another recasting of Batman/Bruce Wayne (in the behind-the-scenes material Val Kilmer and Joel Schumacher pretty much point the finger at each other for why he did not come back) and Clooney was just not the right fit for the role. I do, however, think the actors did the best they could with what they had (which was not much), but with the same story and script, no group of actors could have made the movie better.

The disc setup is the same as the other. The movie and a commentary track on the UHD disc, and all the extras (carried over from prior releases) on the regular blu-ray. The movie mostly looks great on the format although some of the special effects were really bad (this is pre-Matrix, Star Wars Prequels, and Harry Potter where special effects really took off) and the inadequacies are almost amplified on the in the higher-definition format. The extras are along the same lines as for the other movies, with a good amount of material.

Overall, whether you want to get this will really depend on how interested you are in upgrading to the 4k format. If you owned the DVD box set before, this is a big upgrade. Probably not as big of a jump from the blu-ray releases. Also, the movies are being released individually, so those who only want Batman and Batman Returns, without having to pay for the other two, can do so.