What are you watching on Blu-ray? (and discussion of said titles)

[pharsyde]

Incendies is a 2010 Quebec film written and directed by Denis Villeneuve. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's play, Scorched, Incendies follows the journey of two siblings as they attempt to unravel the mystery of their mother's life. The film premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in September 2010 and was released in Quebec on 17 September 2010. In 2011, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The film won eight awards at the 31st Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Lubna Azabal), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Overall Sound and Sound Editing



Quality addition to my collection. Quite an interesting film. Great PQ, AQ also.

[eljay]

Captain America: The First Avenger - With Hydra - a powerful, rogue arm of the Nazi war machine - threatening to destroy the world, America creates a super-soldier dedicated to fighting for all that is good and just.

It was action-packed, but not particularly exciting. And it ran a bit too long.

PQ and AQ - with wonderfully dynamic use of surrounds - were excellent.

[slygoose]

Sucker Punch !
Check that gem out, I have to spread the news. Badass...
Fubar 2 looks great hahah
also for some reason I always watch Valkeryie

Lastly, don't buy Dracula if (Gary Oldman) if you have the dvd. Blu Ray is terrible-looks the same.

[eljay]

Cars 2 - While on tour with Lightning McQueen in Japan, Italy and England, Mater is mistaken for a spy by British Intelligence, who enlists him to help foil a plot to discredit an alternative fuel and to keep the world hooked on oil.

This is the first Pixar movie that has ever disappointed me. It was loud, obnoxious and charmless, just like many of the non-Pixar movies that Pixar has managed to avoid making...until now. The cityscapes and racing footage, however, were very impressive.

PQ and AQ were perfect.

[Nels Stewart]

Red State - Kevin Smith takes a break from ideological documentaries and Silent Bob to take a crack at a low budget violent shoot-em-up Grindhouse film about three teenage boys who stumble into the maw of a crazed fundamentalist religious cult. While plenty of fake blood and squibs are expended, the real horror here is the blind conviction of the religious zealots that defies logic and common sense. Much like zealots in real life. Audacious, with a striking performance by Michael Parks as the cult's pastor, it's not for every taste.
PQ looks like it was shot on high quality video, so it's sharp, with muted colors and some muddiness in dark scenes.
AQ is excellent, especially when the bullets start flying.

[Nels Stewart]

Ooops, got my large-girthed filmmakers confused; Kevin Smith, of course, doesn't make ideological documentaries. My bad.

[redzone]

Cars 2

unlike eljay I loved it! it was exciting and funny. James bond but with animated cars

[Michael DeAbreu]

Captain America

One of the best things about this blu-ray was that it immediately went to the main menu. No previews. No warnings.

[Nels Stewart]

Larry Crowne - You can almost hear the gears turning in the heads of the studio execs who greenlighted this one:

Exec A: "People love the Julia Roberts!"

Exec B: "People love the Tom Hanks!"

Exec A and B, at the same time: "Let's put 'em in a movie together!"

Tom Hanks is the titular character, a manager at a fictional Wal Mart clone called U Mart. But when he loses his job, he decides he needs to upgrade his education, which lands him in Julia Roberts' oddball public speaking class. Peripheral characters come and go, Larry inexplicably joins a scooter "gang" after he's charmed by one of its members, Julia gets drunk after a fight with her layabout porn-surfing husband, romance germinates. The rest of the movie then unfolds in a boring, completely predictable way, punctuated by bad writing and awkward acting.
PQ is bright and colorful. AQ is clear and crisp. Movie itself is a dog.

[Nels Stewart]

The Devil's Double - Dominic Cooper gives one of the best performances of the year playing the double role of Saddam Hussein's deranged and depraved son Uday, and his body double, Latif. A reluctant employee at best, Latif seeks to escape the role that's been thrust upon him as Uday becomes increasingly unbalanced and unpredictable.
PQ is outstanding, bright, tack sharp, colorful, with a golden hue infusing most scenes. Beautiful disc.
AQ is equally impressive.

[Nuje]

Tree of Life: Still trying to figure out if I liked this.
I could appreciate the art in it, and what director Terrence Malick was portraying, but
(a) a narrative thread would've been nice,
(b) for a movie with such a plodding pace, the Bruckheimer-esque quick cuts (I bet the average length of a shot was less than four seconds) felt completely incongruous. It had a strong cast - would've been nice if Malick would've let them act.
That said, it did have some beautiful visuals - especially the "creation" arc near the beginning.

[s40]

SKYLINE-very average movie, special effects were good, picture quality and sound were good, movie acting was very average as well as plot, end was abrupt and badly done imho, it was designed for a sequel, but doesn't deserve one.

[eljay]

My wife and I watched Super 8 earlier this evening. It was fun, she enjoyed it, and I liked it as much as I did when I saw it at the cinema back in July.

PQ was excellent. AQ was clear, well-balanced and fairly dynamic, but a touch light on LFE (a few key scenes notwithstanding).

[Nels Stewart]

Our Idiot Brother - Ned is a loveably feckless organic hobby farmer. But after his naivety lands him in jail for eight months, and his girlfriend dumps him, he's also homeless. So he heads to the city to couch surf amongst his three sisters. And that's where their trouble begins as Ned's gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time wreaks havoc in their lives.
Paul Rudd is charming as Ned, but all the funniest scenes are already in the trailer.
PQ is bright, sharp and colourful. AQ is adequate.

[eljay]

The Tree of Life - Years after the death of his younger brother, the eldest son of a dysfunctional family reflects upon his childhood in the 1950s and makes peace with the ghosts of his past.

Beautiful to watch and visually breath-taking at times, this overwrought piece of pretentious and self-indulgent cinematic "art" was, nevertheless, a chore to sit through. Neither the 30+ minutes of National Geographic-style footage of rivers, leaves, dinosaurs, sperm, galaxies, volcanoes and cityscapes (among other things) nor the occasional whispered, disembodied beseechments to God managed to flesh out the minimalist story or to alleviate the movie's lethargic pacing.

PQ and AQ (some bits of muted monologue notwithstanding) were excellent.