Jon Peters Reviews: “Iron Man” Blu-Ray

The Film:

It seemed on paper that ‘Iron Man’ was going to be good. They had a solid director in Jon Favreau, a stellar cast, and an eye-popping trailer that sent everyone in a buzz. I could go on about how Robert Downey Jr. embodies Tony Stark or how Favreau craft each scene, but the film succeeds ultimately, by its nuances.

Tony Stark is a playboy genius. He is making money hands-over-fist, drives the coolest cars, and knows it. He’s one part arrogant, another part cocky, and to finish it off he is a suave talker. But when he shows off his latest invention, the Jericho, a missile that once airborne, deploys other little missiles to cover a wide range. It’s a powerful, devastating, weapon, one in which could turn the tide on the war on terror in our favor, much like his dad’s weapon did in WWII-the atomic bomb. After the successful demonstration, his convoy is attack by terrorists and he is captured as a POW. Once he learns his situation and the seriousness of it, our cocky, playboy, turns into a scared man. This is where I think the film soars. Upon learning that he has been wildly naive about these weapons he creates and the sacrifice of men who fight against them, he in one moment recognizes the terrible effect he has on the world.

‘I want to protect the people that I put in harm’s way’, he stresses during the movie. It’s a valiant attempt and a powerful change in his character. Downey handles this so perfectly, it’s one of my favorite scenes in 2008 thus far. It’s also a refreshing take at the superhero mythos; he doesn’t need a love interest, so there’s no lover to protect against the bad guy (see in ‘Spider-Man’, ‘Superman-1978′, and ‘Batman-1989′) and he really isn’t concerned with keeping his secret identity, it’s more of an after-thought to him, and one he answers nonchalantly. While he still is the cocky, wise-ass as before, his time in the POW camp change him deeply. He doesn’t have any superpowers or anything of the sort; but he is a genius and if he can use that to develop weapons to kill people, he can make one to protect them.

I know who Iron Man was prior to the film, as I have been a fan for some odd years, these careful scenes establish a new superhero in a post-9/11 age in which we can believe in, both thematically and realistically. These scenes that I have mentioned above create powerful actions that enhance what is known to be a summer blockbuster. It’s risky to pit him up against a political backdrop, but I think it’s one a modern audience can accept. While it never gets to political to alienate a certain group of people, it’s a timely origin.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Iron Man’ is a blast despite my gushing over a few well-written moments. Its action is understated and while we come to expect huge explosions and constant action, ‘Iron Man’ never outdoes itself and always brings character first. Those expecting as such, might be disappointed though I think they might’ve missed ‘Iron Man’s’ point: the man isn’t a willing superhero he even says ‘I’m not the hero type’, but he must find his morals. He vows to use his knowledge to defend people he has been putting in harms way, so seeing Iron Man in some over-the-top action scene seems a bit dull. Stark has creating possibly his ultimate killing weapon, himself, as he displays on some evil terrorists. He is quick and efficient much like the entire film. If ‘Iron Man’ does have any flaws it’s the lack of development for Rhodes, his friend, but this origin film is all about Stark. There are plenty of nuggets introduced subtly, like Stark’s alcoholism, War Machine, and a villain, so wisely saying ‘Iron Man 2′ will be better isn’t a stretch. Regardless, ‘Iron Man’ is a well-made film from all involved and safely translates a 40 plus year character to his first silver screen appearance.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: I would say 98% of the time the Blu Ray kicks the standard DVD in this department. Strangely enough, I found the Dolby Digital track on the standard DVD to be better. That track had more rumble from the sub equaling better bass that will shake your house. On the BD, the Dolby Digital TrueHD track seemed to lose some of its punch especially in the action scenes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good track, but it is odd that the compressed audio on the DVD sounds better than the Blu Ray.

For the video, naturally the Blu Ray looks great but so does the DVD when up-converted. The colors are naturalistic looking which sometimes the Blu Ray feels bright and glossy. Comparing the DVD to the Blu Ray picture-wise, both are excellent. The Blu Ray wins however in details from like back ground objects or like license plates; everything is seen easily and clear. On DVD those things are a bit fuzzy.

Disc 1:

Hall of Armor: This feature allows you to use the remote to zoom and turn in every angle the various suits Tony Stark wore. You can get a better appreciation for Stan Winston’s work on the suits.

Invincible Iron Man: This almost hour long documentary covers everything about Iron Man, from the comics to the film. Something like this is typical for Marvel to add and it’s a fun refresher course on the history of the character.

Deleted Scenes: About 24 minutes worth of stuff, mostly character moments. A couple of good things but nothing major.

Disc 2:

I am Iron Man: This gigantic documentary, running 109-minutes, covers every possible thing about the making of the film. Ranging from pre-production, to making the suits to the premiere, you’ll know everything about the making and behind the scenes of the film. Awesome stuff and well worth your time.

Screen Test:This is Robert Downey’s six minute screen test to be Tony Stark. He was born for this role.

Actor’s Process:Here we see Downey and Bridges rehearse for a scene together for about six minutes.

Wired:This covers all the CG work done in the film with interviews from ILM. Mildly interesting but I’m not that interested in CGI anymore.

The Onion’s Iron Man trailer: This is that funny mock trailer the Onion did for Iron Man.

Trailers, art gallery, preview for an Iron Man animated TV series, and stills round out this amazing set.

The film is amazing, worthy of numerous viewings and whether you get the 2-disc DVD or the Blu Ray, you’ll be rewarded with a great set of must watch bonus materials. This is a must buy.

Jon Peters Reviews: “Leatherheads” Blu-Ray

The Film:

What’s with comedies these days? It seems like the narrative has taken a backseat to gross out jokes, sexual humor, and one-note spoofs. It’s tired and boring. There have been a few comedic gems that have successful mixed big laughs with a good story, but they are few and far in between, sandwiched in the middle by frat-styled humor.

So, it’s always pleasing to witness a natural comedy, one that uses good old fashion humor with fun characters. For George Clooney’s third feature film in his directorial career, he has gone back to the more whimsical, giddy humor of yesteryear. It’s fast-paced, full of sight jokes and clever subtle humor, mostly resembling films of Howard Hawkes, like ‘His Girl Friday’ and ‘Bringing Up Baby’. We’ve known Clooney to be a modern day Cary Grant and he has a love for the films of the 40s and 50s, all of which are immediately clear from frame one. The film opens with the retro 1920s Universal logo, one that they changed in the 30s and many times since, which quickly places you in the mood.

The story is about pro football and its early days of the sport. Clooney wonderfully weaves football’s origin in with the laughs, without slowing it down for a history lesson. Back then they were individually financed, traveled to play the next team that didn’t go belly up. What it lacked in rules, style, and marketability, it gained in the spirit of the players. But college football was huge and it made the pros look amateur in comparison. But when a young college sensation faces his senior year, ‘Dodge’ (Clooney) decides the best way to help pro football is to sign this phenom, Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to the pros. With the media in frenzy over this intriguing development, some of Carter’s war buddies decide to let the papers know that Carter isn’t the war hero the media made him out to be. A fast-talking, no-nonsense, journalist Lexi Littleton is sent out to uncover this story.

‘Leatherheads’ is not a typical sport movie. While the world of football is the main topic, the actual game is in the background, until the climatic game at the end. I find most sports movies boring or ill-conceived. They are some good ones, ‘Rocky’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Rudy’, Field of Dreams’, but there are plenty that are not good. I think they fail to capture what makes the sport popular in the first place. Since this is a football one, most other football films fail to deliver the strategy or the randomness of the game. Most feel contrived or clichéd. Luckily, Clooney wisely focuses on the characters, like Dodge, Lexi and Carter, the three main characters. With this as the forefront, we get to know the characters so when they play, we are with them. I think some with dislike that lack of football, but here I think it works to the film’s advantage.

Surprisingly, Renee Zellweger is good here. Once in a while she features the ‘I-just-sucked-on-a-lemon-face’, but she’s game to handle the quick, snappy dialogue in a Lauren Bacall-type of role. Clooney is equally game too, honing his best Cary Grant-like performance. He can care a visual joke as natural as his directorial skills. Most of the cast is equally as good, like CC who is played by veteran Jonathan Pryce.

Where the film sort of fumbles is towards the end, when Carter is trying to prove his valor, the film feels like it’s trying to say something about the recent sports stars who are always in the tabloids. Carter is a modern day (insert the troubled sport star of choice) and allows the laughs to tick away. It’s not as clever as it thinks, satirizing modern sports celebs, but after that two-minute warning, the final climatic game between Carter and Dodge is worthy of the set up and is genuinely entertaining. ‘Leatherheads’ is a breezy, light-heart comedy. While I didn’t laugh out loud more than a few times, its overall nature is fun and becomes a welcomed break from spoofs, Apatow, and raunch.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: The DTS track is quite powerful with nice sub action and when there’s some football action, you can hear the crowd in the rear speakers hollering and clapping. Outside of the action everything goes to the fronts, but it’s a comedy, so don’t expect an audio assault. Video wise, this Blu Ray is really sharp. Universal was the last studio to jump to Blu but this presentation is exquisite; the Midwest exteriors are bright and absolutely clear, the football uniforms are equally as appealing. This is a good disc.

U-Control:This is Universal’s pop-up track so to speak, which features interviews, behind-the-scenes items, Clooney talking about production challenges and whatnot. Its okay but nothing substantial.

Commentary:As added ‘fun’, this is also visual recorded, something I see studios trying more of. I am not sold on this extra, a commentary should be audio based because who wants to watched two people (Clooney and producer Heslov) talk? As for the commentary it is an n okay track as Clooney is a nice talker. Overall though, this track is a bit forgettable.

If anything, ‘Leatherheads’ is a completely harmless film. I enjoyed myself a bit; Clooney is always fun to watch. While I’m not a sports film fan, Clooney’s attempt at mixing it up with some old fashion comedy is worth at least a rental. If you loved the film, visually and audio-wise this is a top-notch Blu Ray disc, but I wish it had more extras.

New Release Tuesday

Welcome to New Release Tuesday for September 30th! I think this week is pretty stacked, a precursor for all the great releases coming this fall. Let’s see what’s coming out!

Iron Man

** DVD PICK OF THE WEEK** I loved the movie the first time I saw it and still do even with “The Dark Knight” kicking my ass, this movie is still very good. Get the Blu Ray if you have the option and read my dual review for both the DVD and Blu Ray.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

This is another great doc, something I’ve been saying a lot this year. I wasn’t sure how this film would play, being based on steroid use in sports, but it comes off as a “Super Size Me” meets Barry Bonds. Defiantly worth your time to see.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I missed this one earlier this year and it seems like I actually should’ve seen it. With all of Apatow’s films this year, people are recommending this. I like “Pineapple Express” less and less now, but I won’t let that deter me from seeing this. Also on Blu Ray.

Chapter 27

This was one film that just got bitch slapped by critics. Jared Leto goes all Robert de Niro here as he gains a huge amount of weight to play the killer of John Lennon. This might be a Netflix rental for me as I think it looks interesting but like I’ve said critics panned it.

Taxi to the Dark Side

This won the Oscar for Best Documentary this past award show and it’s worthy of that award too. Alex Gibney analyzes what happened to one taxi driver in American custody at Abu Ghraib and the legal battle to his death. Fascinating stuff.

Pulse 2: The Afterlife

Dimension Extreme releases another horror film under their banner for extreme horror. I’ve never seen the original or the remake, but I just wanted to point this out.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore

This documentary hopes to unravel his secret life as one of our best graphic novel writers. He has recently said he’s going to stone the upcoming “Watchmen” film so with that film’s legal battle and Moore dismissing it, this should be eye-opening. I personally love all things Moore has written and can’t wait to Netflix this doc.

Can’t Hardly Wait 10th Anniversary Edition

This is one of those head-scratching releases. I know my mom watches the film a lot on TBS but were people really anticipating this anniversary? Also on Blu Ray.

New to Blu

The Thing

Carpenter’s masterpiece gets all 1080p on us and it should look really good, despite being nearly 30 years old. If you have any of the other DVD releases keep those, because that 90-minute documentary and other deleted scenes are not included here. You just get the commentary.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

I’m very eager to read reviews on this title. I love “TCM” but it was shot on grainy 16mm film, I can’t imagine it looking any better that it did on DVD. I wonder and we’ll see huh?

The Sixth Sense

People still watch this movie? I remember liking it for the first time viewing it but any repeated viewings have made me like this less and less. This is highly over-rated on AFI Top 100 Films of All-Time list, but should look and sound great in 1080p.

Daredevil: Director’s Cut

I like this film a lot. Sure, “Spider-man” and “Iron Man” are better but it’s still good. A victim of the “Bennifer” stage I believe. Hey, Marvel…where’s the sequel?? This should be damn near reference quality on Blu Ray.

Land of the Dead

To me, the weakest of Romero’s zombie films but entertaining enough because it has Asia Argento, who is infinitely hot and expect a sound sounding DTS track.

Dawn of the Dead

Sure the remake didn’t suck, it was kind of entertaining but where’s the social subtext? It was all action and little brains.

Also look for 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and When We Left Earth: Nasa Missions out on Blu today.

Man, what a week! I’m broke now, but come back to Killer Film each and every week for more New Release Tuesday and reviews for these discs!

Donny Broussard & Jon Peters Review: “Eagle Eye”

Once the teaser trailer hit, there was a lot of talk about this movie. What were your initial impressions?

Jon: It was well-made and had that ‘you have to see more now’ feel. I know a lot of people came out talking about this movie, and you know, I was kind of interested. I’m not a big Shia LaBeouf fan but I’ve been noticing trailers of late ending on a question to the audience, trying to build interest, and for that I think the trailer was successful. Regardless, here I am and all I wanted was some fun action; a good popcorn film as they say.

Donny: I really dug the trailer; it made me sick with anticipation. Trailers rarely do that to me, so after seeing the “Eagle Eye” trailer I was extremely excited about this flick, and unlike Jon I am a Shia LeBeouf fan. I was watching him when he was playing Louis Stevens on “Even Stevens” (I have children), and I like the everyman quality that he brings to a picture. Basically I’m saying that the trailer hooked me, and Shia sold me the movie even before I had a chance to check it out.

Once the credits rolled, what did you think?

Donny: I enjoyed this movie! I had a lot of fun with the structure of the flick, and enjoyed the characters. Without giving away the entire story I’ll say that I was slightly disappointed when I found out who the antagonist was, but after letting the story sit in my subconscious for the weekend, I’ve decided that I’m cool with the ending as well as the way the flick played out.

Jon: Yeah, Donny’s right, the main antagonist is a weak villain. I’m not going to spoil it either, but seriously out of all the possibilities they settled on that? I think Donny’s been eating too much gumbo as he is clearly wrong about ‘Eagle Eye’. It’s okay, he was stuffed and was chilling but he missed how incredibly inept the story was. Plot holes you can drive a sixteen wheeler through, let alone all of the implausibility of it all. I can clearly love lame, numb, action films, but this entire film irritated me.

The trailer promised some insane action, so how was the action in ‘Eagle Eye’?

Jon: Well you get action as the film hinges itself mostly on three big action scenes, but it’s the action I can’t stand. Currently, there’s been this attempt in the last decade to make the action so chaotic that it seems intense. It’s the Michael Bay effect, a plague sweeping throughout 90% of all action films today and it isn’t intense or awesome it’s a mind-numbing mess. There are some really good set pieces here that are totally hurt by over-editing. For one there’s a potentially awesome car chase, one that could be better or at least rival the one in ‘Bourne Supremacy’ and they completely blow it. You don’t get the sense of where any car is, where the location is or any sense of direction. It’s totally incoherent. I wish filmmakers would go back to the classics and watch how it is done, because they need to ASAP. I suspect D.J. Caruso has never seen ‘Bullitt’ the great Steve McQueen film that features one of the greatest car chases in history.

I mean it, there was some potentially cool action scenes completely mangled by super short shot lengths. Yes, the action editing got so boring it took me out of the film and I began timing average shot lengths. Now I was doing this late at night, but during most action scenes, ones with no dialogue, the average shot length was about two seconds. I used the ‘One thousand one, one thousand two’ pattern and at times barely got to say ‘one thousand two’. It was a total letdown, perhaps even more so because of the ‘villain’. If editing would have been staged better, I guarantee I would’ve liked this film better.

Donny: Unlike Jon the action sequences didn’t bother me, sure the car chase could have been a little better, but I still had a good time. I liked the fact that I never felt like Shia was a super action hero that always knew what to do. The action took place around him forcing him to react, but never seemed to be as much a direct result of his heroics as it was a means to an end. I think Caruso is a director to be watched, and if this flick is testament to where he is headed as a director, then I’m gonna be in the theatre taking the ride with him.

Jon, you saw it in the IMAX, how was that experience?

Jon:‘The Dark Knight’ was my first feature film IMAX experience and I was hooked. The sound, the screen, I couldn’t wait to go again. ‘Eagle Eye’ was the first feature since that film and I thought what better way to see all that promised action, than on the IMAX. I was again letdown that there was no scenes specifically shot for the IMAX screen. Yes, everything is better on that Godzilla-sized screen, but after Nolan shot some scenes for ‘The Dark Knight’ for use of that entire screen, I was disappointed that Caruso did follow suit. I know that at least 15 IMAX screen will show the film digitally, an IMAX first, but I could tell mine was not. I not knocking the IMAX, but I was expecting a bit more since it’s an action film and the first film since ‘The Dark Knight’ to be shown at the IMAX.

Final thoughts?

Donny: Sometimes I like going to the movies, eating massive amounts of popcorn, and just enjoying myself. “Eagle Eye” was exactly that, a good time at the movies, and while it wasn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, it sure wasn’t the worst. D.J. Caruso + Shi LaBeouf = good times!

Jon: Bah, I know September can been a down month for films, let alone good enjoyable films, but as much as ‘Eagle Eye’ had promise, I felt it all let out midway through. I was disappointed that the IMAX presentation was a full IMAX presentation, but the real culprit is Caruso’s editing. I say skip this and wait for a rental.

Grade?

Jon **
Donny: ***1/2

Jon Peters Reviews: “Choke”

I love Chuck Palahniuk. I feel like given the right creative team, his novels can become a treasure trove of great movies. But at the same time I can see someone not understanding the use of words Chuck uses, his simple style and constant satire, could be translated into a disaster. Fincher got it 100% perfect with ‘Fight Club’, so much so the film had a better ending than the book, but for this review I’ll abide by the first rule of Fight Club:

‘The first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.’

‘Choke’ is one of my other favorite novels by Palahniuk and I was pretty excited to see this, so much so that I avoided seeing the trailer, until it accidentally played in front of a film I recent saw. I guess I could’ve closed my eyes. The reason why is because I completely was afraid a newly turned director Clark Gregg. He’s unproven and I didn’t want to be let down. It’s nothing against Gregg; it’s just that I hold these novels close to me.

I feel as if the film is better after you’ve seen it and have thought about it all. I was kind of disappointed at first. Let me say that the film is darkly humorous, more so that I initial thought it was going to be. Maybe too many days have passed as I don’t remember the book’s humor as amped up as the film but it works completely within this world. While Sam Rockwell wasn’t my first choice to play Vincent, the story protagonist, Rockwell is getting to that point in which he is great in anything. He handles the material as if it’s Shakespeare, crafted Palahniuk’s dialogue into rhythmic verse. Each contemplation or sly remake feels like law. Sometimes only good actors can recite good dialogue and that is well Rockwell wins.

The other cast is equally up to the task as Kelly McDonald and especially Brian William Henke are exceptional. Even Bijou Phillips is good here. With the cast in place, the next thing is Gregg’s vision for the look of the film. Here, to be frank, he makes a flat and dry looking film. The film has no sense of style, each actor dressing like the costume department went shopping as Goodwill, and even the strip club looks plain. I was deeply curious about the style and look of any future Palahniuk films. While they must be true to the story, a sense of fiendish fun would have helped in ‘Choke’. Gregg tries though, as he has flashes of what might Vincent be looking at and that’s fine, seeing a naked nun is pretty hilarious since his sex addiction is haywire, but Gregg needed to spas up the composition. Everything is muted; the colors, the camera work, everything, and it creates a boring looking film. Obviously he isn’t David Fincher. Ah, damn:

‘The second rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.’

The film uses flashbacks and it nearly mirrors the book in that perspective. Although I feel as if the flashbacks weren’t building towards something like the book did. I feel as if Vincent would’ve come to the conclusions at the climax without the flashbacks. In the film, we get these to add to Vincent’s alienation due to his mother’s near abandonment of him and a non-existence childhood, but I could personally done without these or perhaps bookend the film with these scenes. All in all, I enjoyed the film. It isn’t a strict translation but its damn close, closer than I thought it was going to be. The film is a lot of fun if you enjoy your comedy dark and biting. Sadly, any hope of a ‘Fight Club’-like masterpiece is quickly gone after a few frames, but I think ‘Choke’ will play better seeing it a few more times.

Lawrence Mason Reviews: “The Invincible Iron Man”

‘The Invincible Ironman’, is about the millionaire playboy, Tony Stark attempting to raise an ancient Chinese city. During the excavation, the workers on the site are attacked by an ancient society, The Jade Dragons. Soon after, the dragons take some workers hostage including Stark when he arrives. While recovering from the attack, Stark and the Jade Dragon find out that four ancient elemental spirits had come back to life when the city was raised to the surface. Ultimately, the spirits succeed in resurrecting their ancient evil ruler, The Mandarin. Despite not being able to prevent the Mandarin from returning, Stark/Ironman eventually defeat all four elemental spirits and the Mandarin.

Character design and graphics are state of the art. The voice of Tony Stark/ Ironman, Marc Worden, does a wonderful job (Though I did hear flashes of Bruce Wayne here and there. (I am a DC fan if you were curious.) Storyline plays to the strengths of our hero by allowing him to fight in different elements, which gives us the chance to see a couple other suits in action.

The only problem I had did not come until the very end, the defeat of the Mandarin. It did not have to be ultra difficult to put down the evil ruler, but that was not the ending that I had expected either. The ending was not what happened in the comic books. I am having a little trouble putting this into words, so it was a lacklustre ending. That definitely left a bad taste in my mouth, which is why I am giving the movie a three star performance.

Jon Peters Reviews: “The Fall” Blu-Ray

The Film:

Remember that Jennifer Lopez serial killer movie called ‘The Cell’? Well, it took nearly 8 years, but director Tarsem has made his fallow-up film, ‘The Fall (Rsa)’. What made ‘The Cell’ was its vast visual style and images that stuck with you long after you saw the movie. Many people still remember the horse being cut in half. One of ‘The Cell’s’ biggest flaws was its generic story and while ‘The Fall’ is visually the most stunning film this year released, it too suffers in the story department.

While style does not make a movie, ‘The Fall’ certainly tries to buck that trend. The film begins with a beautiful black and white scene featuring a train and a dead horse (yes, Tarsem has something about horses). You could basically freeze frame at any second and have a beautiful poster for your room. There’s a cool stop-motion animated sequence that ties in with a character’s current sate, the blue city, but to my surprise Tarsem repeats a few shoots from ‘The Cell’ within ‘The Fall’. After 8 years and numerous countries used for filming, he still uses that vast wide angle of orange sand dunes, with a figure in white coming down them, why? I don’t understand it. You shouldn’t repeat yourself within two films I would think.

Despite that people who enjoy gorgeous shots and masterful art direction will love the look of this film. What brings these images together is a rather simple and generic story. The whole time, I felt like I was reading one of those children’s books, which features a huge double page artwork, with one singular sentence telling the story. It’s overtly simple and a missed opportunity to craft an amazing picture.

I will say the picture establishes itself with better motives late within its running time, but for a while there, it was thin. Tarsem makes you wait to long to get to know the characters and for many, by that time, they’re done trying to connect. A paralyzed man tells a story to a little girl. That’s the plot for about 75 minutes. After awhile I got sick of the little girl’s imagination and her irritating mannerisms. For the last half an hour, like I said, sort of redeems the film, by adding through this story the man finds redemption and the little girl understands the harsh realities in life. Sure okay, but if Tarsem would’ve sprinkled this not all at the end, but within the running time, I think it would’ve helped the film out.

Tarsem just needs to have someone help develop his ideas into more compelling narratives. Visually, he might be come a master; his films are gorgeous to view. But pretty images are for books, the medium of film can provide us with stirring emotions, but not in ‘The Fall’. The film could’ve played dialogue free and might’ve still worked. Or as another critic put it, a book of photographic stills from the film would have been just fine. This was a personal project for Tarsem but he needs to wrap a more compelling drama around pretty images.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: Sony delivers a spectacular print for ‘The Fall’. This is just one incredible transfer. Clarity and black levels are as good as any prior Blu Ray disc released. This is what 1080p is all about. Audio is equally good, with deep bass and clear vocals, even during the action scenes.

Commentaries: The first one belongs to Tarsem all alone but it doesn’t matter. He analyzes each scene with incredible love and affection. He gets to the filming much later on and briefly and comments on the girl’s audition tapes and some deleted scenes which are sadly, not present on the BD. Shame, but this is what a commentary is all about: a personal look at a film from the director. Give it a listen; it’s worth it, especially for a film like this.

Tarsem appears on the second commentary, this time with Lee Pace, the producer and the screenwriter. This track is another good commentary which is more fluid since there are four participants. They cover mostly the evolution of the script. Given the chance, go with the first track first, but both are well listening to.

Deleted scenes are barely one minute in total, both worth a quick peak, Galleries, and trailer round out the package.

The film has grown on me slightly since first seeing it theatrically and while the commentaries are really good, not having a documentary on the making is quite disappointing as well as not seeing the deleted scenes Tarsem mentions. The audio and video are almost too good, which is why we get and buy high definition discs.

John Peters Reviews: “The Love Guru” DVD

The Film:

Sometimes you just know a movie is going to be bad. But the level of bad the movie could be can only be speculated on because, well, you have to see the movie. I got the sense ‘The Love Guru’ was going to be bad mostly because of the unfunny trailer. It just reeked of recycled material. Then there was this internet backlash prior to its release claiming it was horrible, worst movie of the year, a turd, a bomb, and while word on the internet snowballs at times unjustly, other times highly appropriate and for ‘The Love Guru’, they hit the nail on the head. This movie sucks.

I hate using that word in describing a film; it’s too simple to use and it isn’t very analytical, but seriously, this movie sucks. Why does it suck? Let me be the first to use the word in a critical study of why this movie is bad. For starters it commits the mortal sin against the genre of comedy, every genre has that one sin that will automatically make the movie bad, and for comedy its funny, something ‘The Love Guru’ forgot to be. It just isn’t funny. I’m not being an old stick-in-the-mud either, I can laugh at anything. I’m usually the cause of laughter, but I’ll be damned if this film can crack one solid good laugh. I attended this mid-day, so there are less people to catch that domino effect that is laughing. So in order to make a smaller crowd laugh, you got to be, well, funny. Every joke here is certainly an old joke, one’s we’ve seen Myers do numerous times from ‘SNL’ or ‘Austin Powers’. In fact, the film structurally follows the ‘Austin Powers’ formula; they just replaced the James Bond character spoofs, with self-help people. Yawn.

Myers seems game after a five year live-action hiatus, but at times he stops the film and begs for a laugh. Please? No, Michael you can’t have one. Comedy now days relies on potty humor and language, perhaps perfected by Judd Apatow, but Myers copies and amps up all of it, to boring results. The jokes seem stale, as if your co-worker tried to tell a joke and failed. We expect more from Myers; he gave us a lot of catch phrases, memorable skits on ‘SNL’, and even a comedy franchise, but in the end you must grow and Myers is certainly stuck in neutral. The jokes are so unfunny, the suck laughter out of you. There’s my definition of suck in describing a movie. A movie sucks therefore it takes something forcefully out of you. For 88 minutes we are being unable to commit to the simple act of laughing and by the time we walk out we are wondering what that feeling was and if we can do it again. In the film, the Guru puts trademarks on phrases, so let me do one: D.U.M.B., TM. D is for directionless, U is for unfunny, M is for mind-numbing, and B is for bad, trademark. Please avoid the worst film of 2008. If tempted, remember D.U.M.B.

The DVD:

Audio/Video:Despite the colors being vivid, the overall picture is rather soft, even for a standard definition DVD. The black levels are sharp too, but there’s some rather blurriness in the fineness of the image. The Dolby Digital is fine for a comedy. There’s some rumble in the bass in some scenes and of course, the dialogue is nice and clear, just don’t expect a lot of surround activity, because there’s little to none.
Mike Myers and the Love Guru: This 10-minute interview just has Myers talking about the character and whatnot. More Myers goofiness and not memorable about this piece

One Hellava Elephant: This short feature talks about the work with the elephant in the film, which isn’t a bad little thing to watch.

Hockey Training for Actors: A quick look at what the actor needed to do for the hockey scenes in the film, since Myers is a huge hockey fan.

Deleted Scenes: I bag on deleted scenes now days because mostly they have become a waste of space. If they’re good scenes, there’s usually an extended cut of the film made or they should be left unseen. Comedies on the other hand go through a trial and error stage, so I’m curious to see them. About 13 minutes on ‘Love Guru’ were deleted and these are okay. If the film is as unfunny as I said, imagine the deleted scenes. A for effort.

Outtakes: funnier than the deleted scenes.

Back in the Booth with Jay and Trent: About five minutes of the annoying sportscasters from the film goofing off some more.

Digital Copy, trailers, and a Gag Reel round out the 2-disc Special Edition.

I really disliked the film for being the opposite of funny, which isn’t good if you’re a comedy fan. Avoid the film. If you’re interested still, the DVD is fine, but the extras really aren’t worth the price spike 2-discers are going for now days.

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