Getting into Blu-Ray

Oh DVD-Spot
Is really really hot
You love it - a lot
Now I'm out of rhymes - that's your lot!

Ooooooh hello readers,

Guess what...? It's Easter Weekend - Which means that I have a whopping four days off doing absolutely nothing! How cool is that?

I actually have a further two DVDs to get through from LoveFilm - The Maltese Falcon and Brighton Rock. Both movie adaptations of books that I've read within the past few months (both excellent). I can't wait to see Bogart's take on Samuel Spade in particular - he's the perfect choice!


So anyway, I was looking through HMV's Blu-Ray selection today, now that it has been crowned king of the next-gen. Unfortunately it's still very expensive - most discs ranging around the £17.99 mark. That means that you only really want to grab the essential editions, or pick up discs that are on offer. HMV currently have a '3 for the price of 2' offer on lots of Blu-Ray discs which seems ok, so they could be worth checking out..


So being the nice guy that I am, I thought I would mine the HMV Blu-Ray section and share my essential picks with all of you:

2001: A Space Odyssey - Special Edition

This is probably a poor one to start off with, because I've never seen it! I know, me! A connoisseur of film! This is precisely the reason I signed up to LoveFilm really, and I actually have this Blu-Ray version on my waiting list. I'm sure it'll be spectacular.

Full Metal Jacket Special Edition

More Stanley Kubrick - Full Metal Jacket is a fantastic film, and it's shot in a beautifully stylised way. This is always talked about as one of the best Vietnam pictures of all time - the other main contenders being Apocalypse Now and Platoon. Personally I think this is the weakest of the three, but the start of the film in the boot camp is sensational. Kubrick shoots it in such a beautifully eerie way - I'd love to see it in Blu-Ray.

Seven-six-two millimeter. Full. Metal. Jacket.

Spiderman Trilogy - £29.99

I'm almost tempted to get this solely for the packaging.. it reminds me of a kick-ass 3D cover that Empire Magazine did a while back. I still haven't seen the third one, which sounded like it was a bit rubbish - but I still think the second film is one of the better superhero movies of recent times. Along with the likes of X-Men 2 and Batman Begins (Batman Begins probably being the best superhero movie ever..) Anyway, I imagine this series will look fantastic in Blu-Ray.


A Clockwork Orange: Special Edition

Yet more Kubrick! He should start paying me some royalties with all this promotion.. Anyway, A Clockwork Orange is a chilling and edgy film, and well adapted from the book. I've yet to find out what the special features are on this Blu-Ray release, so as to make it 'special'. I think this is a real issue with a lot of Blu-Ray titles. If they're lacking the special features of their DVD counterparts then why would you buy it? Can the high definition aspect alone justify the purchase? Anyway, that aside, it's an essential film.

The Blu-Ray Edition - Real Horrorshow O my Brothers.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition

The first of Steven Spielberg's back-catalogue to hit the high definition format.. Apparently this is a really comprehensive set, with three cuts of the film. It also looks fantastic in high definition. According to Amazon.

Ratatouille/Pixar Shorts

I bought this recently on DVD as mentioned in the post here. I was struggling for ages on whether to buy the Blu-Ray edition or not.. Eventually I opted out and got the standard DVD edition instead. It means that I can watch it elsewhere other than just in my room where the only Blu-Ray player is. It's a shame in a way though because I would love to see the perfect, crisp visuals even more crisp and even more perfect. As for the film.. I think it's brilliant, and in competition for the title of 'Pixar's Best'. I've watched it about three times now in various places (at home, on a plane) and it's totally re-watchable. If you want a new film to kick off your Blu-Ray collection then you could do a lot worse!

Magnifique!

And that's all for now. I will continue to monitor Blu-Ray prices and shall inform you of any massive bargains. Until next time readers!

- Jimmy

-------------------

Edit: Since starting this post I've actually seen both The Maltese Falcon and Brighton Rock. Here's the reviews that I left on the LoveFilm site -


Brighton Rock
- Surprisingly Dark! 4/5
In the first five minutes of this I could only think that they'd cast all the characters about ten years too old - but five minutes later I realised that they'd hit the tone spot on, and that it was a remarkably faithful adaptation. Richard Attenborough is mainly to thank for this, as he turns in a fantastic performance as Pinkie, the young gang leader. He manages to capture the naivety and paranoia of the character perfectly, as well as the cruelty and sense of disconnection that he has. Kudos to the filmmakers for keeping the dark sinister tone that underlies the story (with the exception of one scene). All in all Brighton Rock is a fantastic adaptation, and compelling viewing!

The Maltese Falcon
- It's the stuff dreams are made of.. 4/5
Bogart is Sam Spade! Having only just read the book, I was quite eager to see the classic movie adaptation, to see if Bogart could pull off the iconic hard-boiled detective. Well.. he does! I had my reservations at the start, but five minutes in it was clear that he owned the role. He gets just the right amount of swagger and stubbornness. As far as the movie adaptation goes, it's a very good one, and a compelling film. With inspired casting elsewhere, particularly Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo.. it adds up to a fantastic whole.

Do You... LOVE FILM?

Hello readers,

Apologies for the lack of an update recently, but I was away tearing up the slopes of Whistler Mountain in Canada, breaking out all kinds of fresh and buttery moves and generally being awesome. After that I was hit with some kind of mutant bastard flu and have been staggering about all zombie like for the past week or so - bogus!

So anyway, here's what I want to talk about - LoveFilm!!

It came to my attention recently that I probably buy a few too many DVD's, with a figure nearing the 300 mark now. So when someone offered me a code for a 30 day LoveFilm trial I thought it might be an idea to finally check it out.

(To get a 30 day trial yourself - click here.)

I finally signed up last week (Thursday in fact) and I chose the option that gave me four discs a month, two at a time. I thought this was a pretty reasonable way to start, and it was only £7.99 a month.

One of the first things I was encouraged to do after signing up was to populate my rental wishlist, so that LoveFilm can pick available titles for me. Within about ten minutes I had 13 unique titles, a mixture of films I wanted to see, and old classics that I just hadn't got round to seeing before. LoveFilm seems quite sophisticated in the way in which it recommends films. I started off by typing in some of my favourite films, and then looking at other titles that LoveFilm reocmmended from those. Often the related films that it recommended were other top favourites of mine, so I knew it was doing something right. It didn't take long at all to build up a fairly large rental list. Here's what I chose initially:

Death Proof
Planet Terror
The Maltese Falcon
Two Days in Paris
Raising Arizona
Shoot 'Em Up
Tape
The Newton Boys
Alexander
Brighton Rock
Control
The Darjeeling Limited
Nashville

A good feature is that you can mark each title with a priority, so if I reeeally wanted to see Planet Terror, but not so much Death Proof - I can set Planet Terror to high and Death Proof to low. Others are defaulted to medium. You can also make custom lists, say if you're sharing the membership with someone, or if you want to break them down further.

So I signed up to this on Thursday, and by Saturday morning they had arrived! They send out the discs in tiny envelopes, big enough just to cover the discs. This was quite reassuring, as it means that sending them back is absolutely zero hassle at all, and it's all freepost so you just slip them in the postbox. Over the weekend I watched both discs (2 Days in Paris & Death Proof) and added reviews to the LoveFilm site to help bulk up my profile a bit.

I posted them back just today, so I should see a response from the website by Tuesday, and have the next two by Thursday at the latest. One thing I do know is that I won't be keeping this monthly plan - I'm going to get through them way too quick. I think the 2 at a time, unlimited option could be the better bet, I'll have to see how it goes..

But for now, less than a week into my trial period I can say that the service looks very very good indeed. I'm going to use it as much as I possibly can and catch up on some old classics that I really should have seen by now, then I can think about chucking some game rentals in there as well!

Anyway, until next time guys, stay cool!

(Previous LoveFilm posts are here and here).

- Jimmy