Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Inferno

 

Inferno is the third movie in the adaptations of Dan Brown's novels based on the character of Robert Langdon (played in the movies by Tom Hanks). The movies are a bit interconnected, but mostly stand-alone stories, so this is somewhat of a sequel to the movies The Davinci Code and Angels and Demons, but you do not have to have seen those movies to follow most of what is going on in this one. The big thing you will miss if you have not seen the other movies is the development of the Langdon character because this movie pretty much just jumps into the story.

The main plot of this movie involves a plot by a billionaire scientist named Bertrand Zobrist (played by Ben Foster) to solve the world's overpopulation issue. Langdon wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the past few days and is immediately targeted by an assassin. With the help of his doctor, Sienna Brooks, played by Felicity Jones (probably best known for her role in Rogue One), he escapes and discovers he has clues to the plot, which points to some mass murder event and is based on Dante's Inferno (hence the title of the book). From there, as in the first two movies, the plot involves Langdon solving clues that point to even more clues, with a lot of twists and turns along the way.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in the HD format (with a lot of great location shots from where the movie was filmed), and has a decent amount of extras. Those include over 27 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, short featurettes on each of the main characters, a featurette on the filming locations, and a director journal, which is basically 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage following Ron Howard around and interspersing his comments. Then there is a featurette on the darker imagery from the movie and some trailers for other movies.

Overall, the movie is good, but probably not as good as the first two movies. The movie does adapt the book well, but like with the first two installments, there are definitely changes made. It seems more and more likely that this movie will be the last of the novel adaptations with Howard and Hanks at the helm, despite there being two other Langdon novels that could be turned into movies. In general, I would say if you enjoyed the first two movies you will probably enjoy this one, although maybe not as much. On the other hand, if you did not like the first couple of movies, this may not do much for you. That is, of course, unless the only reason you did not like the first two movies was because of the religious tones, but in that case, you are probably not ever going to watch this anyway. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Forrest Gump

 

Chances are that most people looking at this by now have seen the movie at least one time, but for those who have not, Forrest Gump is the iconic 1994 movie directed by Robert Zemeckis (probably best known for directing the Back to the Future movies) and starring Tom Hanks as the titular Forrest Gump, basically telling the story of his life to random strangers while sitting on a bus stop in Georgia. Throughout the movie, we see that he was involved in many events throughout his life that allowed him to meet historical figures like JFK, President Johnson, and more. The movie is basically a history lesson of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, as told through the eyes and experiences of Forrest. The movie is notable for two things, the first being the almost seamless incorporation of Tom Hanks as Forrest into historical footage (basically an early version of the concept of Deep Fakes) in which it actually looks like Hanks belongs in the footage, and the second is Tom Hanks' wonderful portrayal of a developmentally disabled person. The movie also had a very strong supporting cast including Sally Field, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and a young Haley Joel Osment in his first movie role.

There have been many versions of the movie on physical media over the years. The Sapphire series edition blu-ray, which was released in 2009 includes all of the extras released on the 2001 DVD, including two different commentary tracks on the movie, the first one involving Zemeckis, producer Steve Starkey, and production designer Rick Carter, and the second one by Producer Wendy Finerman. The other legacy extra is the ability to play the "Musical Signposts of History" version of the movie. This is a series of sidebars hosted by former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres, in which he discusses the trivia of the film's many songs, while Zemeckis and music producer Joel Sill (both in archived footage) talk about song inspirations. When enabled, the film turns off and switches to these sidebars before resuming. The bulk of the extras are included on the second disc which includes several new making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes which range from about 15 minutes in length to around 30 minutes in length. Then there is a 55-minute roundtable discussion with Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Eric Roth, and Robert Zemeckis discussing the film at the University of Southern California. Then the rest of the legacy extras are included which are basically a series of short featurettes that each run about 2 minutes, give or take, and the theatrical trailer. So, if you like watching bonus content, there is a lot here for you. And, the A/V quality of the blu-ray is wonderful.

Overall, the movie is awesome and holds up very well even 25+ years later. The role is one of Hanks' best, and he deserves all of the accolades he got for it. If you have not seen the movie, it is most definitely worth watching and if you already love the movie the bonus material you get makes picking up the blu-ray well worth it.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: The Da Vinci Code (Two-Disc Extended Edition + BD Live)

 

This is the movie adaptation of the wildly popular novel by Dan Brown of the same name. The movie was directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, a professor at Harvard University who is unknowingly the subject of a police investigation into the murder of the curator of the Lurve in Paris. Audrey Tautou plays Sophie Neveu, the granddaughter of the curator who joins Langdon in following clues that point to the Holy Grail.

There are different editions of the movie. I have the extended edition which has a running time of 174 minutes. The additional scenes do not change the movie significantly, just add additional material here and there, and end up being about half an hour longer than the theatrical edition. I do think the additional footage helps make the movie make a bit more sense than the shorter version does, so in that sense, it works. There are a ton of extras on the Blu-Ray set including an interactive picture-in-picture experience that plays the movie with behind-the-scenes material and interviews with cast and crew members as the film plays. There is also a selective scene commentary with Ron Howard that breaks down specific scenes from the movie. There is also a second disc just with special features that include the making-of documentary from the original DVD release, a book-to-screen feature about adapting the book into a movie, a feature called Da Vinci props, that discussed bringing the descriptions of Da Vinci's inventions into the real world, and featurettes on the sets, recreating the artwork, the visual effects, and the music, as well as promotional trailers for other Sony movies. So, a ton of material for those who like the bonus content. The movie looks and sounds great in HD, with a ton of great visuals from around Europe.

Overall, I think the movie was good as the novel. Which is the case many times when a novel is adapted into a movie. Hanks does a great job as Langdon (aside from having a weird haircut), and Jean Reno as the police inspector is great. Audrey Tautou and Ian Mckellan do a good job in their roles but don't think either of them was necessarily the best casting choice for the roles they played. The book and the movie get a lot of flack as being blasphemous, which I think is unfair. Yes, it has a religious element to it, but it is a fictional story that, while it ties some real historical elements in, it does not claim to be 100 percent historically accurate. Because of that, there will always be a segment of people who will never see the movie or read the book. But, if you can accept that it is a fictional thriller/mystery, and is not pretending to be anything more than that, it is an enjoyable movie that is worth seeing.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Angels & Demons

 

Angels and Demons was the follow-up to the Da-Vinci Code, which was a massively popular (and controversial) book by Dan Brown, that was adapted into a somewhat underwhelming movie by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks. I always thought that the first movie was considered underwhelming because of the backlash the book received. This movie reunites Hanks (as the protagonist Robert Langdon) and director Howard in the adaptation of the second novel in the series. It is set around the death of the pope and deals heavily with the search for a new pope. In the background was yet another shadowy group, calling themselves the Illuminati, which protested the Catholic Church's prosecution of scientists 400 years ago, that are attacking members of the clergy.

The movie stars Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, and Stellan Skarsgard. Like the Da Vinci Code, this movie entwines real-life historical figures, locations, and events into a fictional suspense storyline. The acting is great, and the screenplay stuck pretty faithfully to the novel. And, Tom Hanks has a much better hairstyle in this movie, which stupidly was a big deal when Da Vinci Code came out.

For those who get the Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great in HD. The cinematography showing off Rome in all its glory looks wonderful, especially if you have a big screen to watch the movie on. The extras include a Movie-IQ function that provides an in-movie experience with facts that pop up as you are watching the movie, and several making-of and behind-the-scenes features that range from about five minutes to almost twenty minutes. A good amount of material for those who like watching the bonus features.

Overall, the movie is very good. Better than the underrated Da Vinci Code, so if you like that you will probably like this one. Of course, there are a lot of people who will never watch the movie because they considered the Da Vinci Code blasphemous and hence will never read any of the books or watch any of the movies. Chances are people in that category will probably not even consider watching the movie and are unlikely to read the reviews for it. But, if you are on the fence about whether to watch it, I definitely think it is worth giving it a chance. And, you really do not have to watch the first movie to understand what is going on in this one. The only thing the first movie will give you is a bit of the character development of Robert Langdon where this movie assumes you are at least somewhat familiar with the character.