These next few months see the release of some truly spectacular films on Blu-Ray and DVD. Two of my favourite films from last year are about to be released in fact, leaving me with the hard task of deciding just which versions to go for!
The first (which is released in the next few days) is 'No Country For Old Men', the fantastic return-to-form masterpiece from the Coen Brothers, my favourite filmmaking duo. This is a real slow burner, with a really bleak, yet tense atmosphere. Looking online for different versions I'm struggling over whether I should go for the Play.com exclusive art cards, or with the HMV special packaging..
No Country For Old Men Exclusive Art Cards (Play.com)
No Country For Old Men Special Packaging (HMV)
Even though it doesn't really matter, I think I have to take packaging over art cards most times. You may say that it's completely shallow to worry over these things but hey, I write a DVD blog, and there's also a very powerful argument for collecting these things as well.. *section of argument missing*
The second film is the devastatingly powerful oil epic 'There Will Be Blood', made by my favourite (singular) filmmaker - Paul Thomas Anderson.
This is out in early July, and yet again I'm faced with a tough decision. Do I go for the 2 disc collectors edition on DVD (which looks to have nicer artwork) or take my first bold step into Blu-Ray collecting? To be honest if any film can sway me over to Blu-Ray it will be this one. No Country actually has some stunning cinematography, but There Will Be Blood is absolutely breathtaking:
There will be Blood 2 Disc Collectors DVD (Amazon)
There will be Blood Blu-Ray (Amazon)
Who am I kidding? Why even consider this one? It would be an absolute crime not to see this in all it's Hi-Def Glory - There Will Be Blu-Ray!
(See previous brief reviews of No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood here)
2 comments:
Ok, with No Country go for the special packaging - it comes in this really nice tin, much better than the standard plastic fare. Yes yes, much better.
Also it actually has some fairly decent special features. There's a nice little making of (that's longer than 5 minutes and also more than just a few talking heads) and the brothers themselves speak about quite a lot of different aspects of the film. I was pleasantly surprised given how little they usually give out on DVDs.
Just got There Will be Blood on Blu-Ray - little bit disappointed to be honest! The film looks stunning in high def (which is what matters I guess) but a lot of other aspects were disappointing.
The packaging isn't really all that at all - the paper insert on the cover looked washed out and the disc doesn't even have an image on it - it's just bright Blue (or is that Blu). The title screen is just a single image with titles, and there's not a lot of next-gen features. I rented another Blu-Ray the other week which used a kind of slider so you can select exact points in the film immidiately. Extras look to be disappointing too - I know PTA likes to keep each DVD/disc unique, but a commentary or in-depth behind the scenes would have something else. The commentaries for his earlier films (Hard Eight/Boogie Nights) are fantastic - so bit disappointing to be honest - but sensational film!
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