Blu-Ray Review - Aladdin (1992)

The Film:

Released in November of 1992 (June of 1993 in Australian Cinemas, 7 months after the US release date) Aladdin was the first feature by Little Mermaid directors John Musker and Ron Clements since that hit film and concerned a young street boy (street rat as he's called) named Aladdin (voice of Scott Weinger) who wishes for a better life instead of the one he has running from the guards and stealing food to survive, Princess Jasmine meanwhile (voice of Linda Larkin) hates being a cooped up princess inside the palace, when these two meet their entire world will change, for good and for bad.

Aladdin is one of those films that for me is an inspiration, in which that its one of those films I saw at an early age and which inspired me to love movies as much as I do now, heck I can still remember the first time I saw it as if it was yesterday.

The film gets a lot right, the animation is fast and fluid, the songs are great (sadly this would be the last collaboration between Howard Ashman and Alan Menken as Ashman passed away during the early development stages of the film and a lot of his work had to be scrapped though some it survived) and it has a terrific villain in Jafar who almost comes close to stealing the show from Robin Williams as the Genie who's simply on fire here, showing a rapid fire comic energy rarely seen on screen.

But what really stuck out for me as I watched it on Blu was how it crossed the gender divide in a way that most Disney films rarely do, this one is as much for guys as it is gals and for the most part the Disney features are for girls more than they are boys due to them being fairy tales for the most part, this one doesn't do that and as a result it has a much broader audience than most of the company's back catalogue.

And lastly in terms of Jafar, if a live action film is considered, I sincerely hope Tom Hiddleston is cast in the role as some of his scenes in the Avengers last year felt a lot like scenes Jafar might do.

The Video:

Um, Wow.

That pretty much sums it up, this film looks terrific on Blu-Ray, the colors really pop out, the animation style is just glorious and the backgrounds now show off many details none of us ever saw during the film's long shelf life on Video and DVD.

Not much else to say after that so let's move on.

The Audio:

Presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 sound, Aladdin shines on Blu-Ray in a very nicely balanced sound mix, as with the video transfer you're going to notice things you hadn't until now.

Some of those will be sound effects, the background score during scenes both dialogue and musical numbers and its all presented with a real clarity that makes sure no one element outdoes the other, this is simply a terrific mix that will like its video counterpart really make long standing fans of the film sit up and take notice all over again.

The Extras:

Here's where things get a little more mixed for my liking as while the extras are good, very good even, they're also a little bit of a missed opportunity given Disney's other Blu-Ray work.

All of the extras here are sourced from the excellent 2004 2-Disc DVD release which was widely seen as the best of the Platinum Edition releases next to Snow White so without further ado let's dig in.

Audio Commentary by John Musker, Ron Clements and Amy Pell: One of two commentaries recorded for the 04 DVD, this one is a more straightforward affair that goes into the production of the film, it's an okay commentary but I doubt you would listen to it more than once.

Music Videos: 3 Music Videos appear in this section, all of them also featured on the 04 DVD release.

The first and frankly, the only one you should bother with is the original 1992 "A Whole New World" music video with Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson and its actually my favorite version of the song recorded as it has a nice tone to it whereas the version sung in the film really grated me due to Brad Kane and Lea Salonga's high pitched voices, still it's nice to see this music video on here and its definitely worth checking out.

What isn't worth checking out is the version sung by Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson (pre-divorce days) and the deleted song "Proud of Your Boy" sung by Clay Aiken from American Idol, both are simply a waste of time and should not have been on this disc when much better extras were left off and should've taken their place instead.

Deleted Scenes: 2 Deleted Scenes appear here, both from an earlier version of the film.

The first is a variation of Aladdin and Jasmine's first meeting, this version has him hiding in the Palace Gardens talking to Jasmine below, another big difference is that Aladdin himself is much younger and more of a kid, something that had to be changed for the film itself.

The second is an alternate version of Aladdin enjoying himself in the palace as Prince Ali and in this version Iago is watching the whole thing from the roof whereas in the film he sneaks in when Ali is called away.

2 other big differences in this scene as compared to the one in the film is that the Genie has infinite wishes and Ali's mother is present, the mother was a key character in Ashman's initial conception of the film and had to be cut when his version was scrapped after his death, it's a very nice scene that acts as an alternative to the one in the film.

Deleted Songs: 4 Deleted Songs appear in this section, again from earlier versions of the film.

The first is "Proud of your Boy", a key song by Ashman and Menken that had to be deleted when the mother was removed from the story and the film had to be rethought virtually from scratch, it's a very nice song and Menken does a great rendition of it but it wouldn't have fit in the final film and most likely have slowed things down had it been included, still it's great to see it here and its definitely worth watching more than once.

The second is one of two initial attempts at a song for Jafar when he gets the lamp, the first is "Humiliate the Boy" written by Ashman and Menken and it's a very interesting with some surprisingly dark lyrics at times but it also distracts very heavily from the on screen action though it must be said Jonathan Freeman does a great job with the song and it will definitely excite fans.

The second attempt is "Why Me?" written by Menken and Tim Rice and more closely resembles the final version of the story, it's a good song but like Humiliate the Boy it slows everything down and makes Jafar less menacing and more campy, happily both songs were junked in favor of the reprise of Prince Ali seen in the film and boy does that trump both songs by a fair margin.

The fourth and final one is "You Can Count on Me", the first song Menken wrote for the film after Ashman's death and it shows in the lyrics, it's almost as if Menken was writing it about Ashman, it's probably my favorite of the deleted songs seen here and its definitely worth checking out.

A Diamond in the Rough - The Making of Aladdin: The centerpiece extra from the 04 DVD release, this doco covers almost everything you could want to know about the making of the film.

And it was a ride far from certain, for instance a lot of the early work Ashman had done had to be scrapped save for a couple of his songs already written, the design of Aladdin himself had to be changed completely, the film had to be rethought virtually from scratch and it all had to be done in a year and a half to make its release date, talk about down to the wire and full speed ahead.

And yet as some of the animators say in the doco, it doesn't show in the film at all and they're right, the final film feels effortless despite the long hard journey it went through in production.

What's Missing Here:

Sadly some of the key extras from the DVD release are missing on this Blu-Ray release notably:

- A second commentary track by animators Andreas Deja, Will Finn, Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg
- A "You Talking to Me: The Voices of Aladdin" featurette from the doco
- A featurette on Alan Menken
- A featurette on some of the art designs for the film
- Theatrical Trailer

And I really wish they were here instead of the Lachey/Simpson and Clay Aiken music videos as they help to complete the package of extras created for the film's DVD release from 04.

But what I really wish was here on this Blu-Ray release along with those missing extras mentioned above were some new extras as Disney have always done this with the Blu-Ray releases of their animated movies for the most part as well as porting over the DVD extras already created.

Some of those would be the additional songs Ashman and Menken wrote in their initial score for the film that were later scrapped but then released on a CD box set in 94 and were:

- High Adventure: A terrific song that was scrapped when the story was rewritten and when I first heard it I couldn't get it out of my head, this song was released on the Special Edition CD soundtrack but shamefully not on DVD or Blu-Ray and boy does that make me sad as its one of my favorite songs ever written by Ashman and Menken.

- Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim: A jumpy tune that helped to inspire "One Jump Ahead" in the final film, this deals with Aladdin and his three friends working the streets of Baghdad (I'm not joking, its mentioned in the lyrics), it's a nice breezy tune but am not surprised it was scrapped.

- Call me a Princess: Wow is this something and not necessarily in a good way, it's a song for Jasmine who never got one of her own in the film and its all wrong for her character as she comes across as a real brat instead of the headstrong take no crap character we got, frankly I'm glad it was deleted.

- How Quick they Forget: An interesting song about the breakup of the 4 friends mentioned above, the lyrics in the song are interesting and it's a good song but it's also a somewhat lengthy one at about 4 minutes and would've probably slowed the film down had it remained.

- Arabian Nights Reprises: As mentioned in the Musker and Clements commentary track, the opening song Arabian Nights was initially broken up into stanza's.

The first reprise like the others were fairly short and intended to be sung by the narrator who opens the final film, the first reprise is interesting in that it reveals the name of the Sultan while the second and third sort of try to move the story along at key points though given what they reveal it shows a very different sequence of events to the one shown in the final film.

The fourth and final reprise was later used for the 1996 DTV sequel The King of Thieves, the reprise would've worked much better here and would've served as a better ending to the film instead of the reprise of "A Whole New World" we got instead plus it would've brought the narrator back into the film as he disappears after opening it which is a shame but these things happen.

In terms of how these reprises might have worked in the film well as I said the final reprise would've worked just fine but the others were scrapped for a reason as like a lot of these songs initially written, they would've slowed the film down and put in a song moment simply for the sake of having one there.

What would've also been great is an interview with Robin Williams talking about his experiences of making the film given that he's opened up about it a bit more since the DVD release in 04 as well as a more detailed featurette about the initial version Ashman helped write which had the mother in it as well as Al's three buddies mentioned above.

Then again, with Disney in the US planning to do a Blu-Ray release sometime next year (they were going to do a Diamond Edition release this year but decided to do Peter Pan instead) maybe those complaints will be wished away but in that regard we'll just have to wait and see.

The Verdict:

Aladdin gets a great Blu-Ray release with terrific A/V quality and very good extras despite some setbacks in that department, this is absolutely worth the money and fans shouldn't hesitate to go out and grab it.

Film Review - The Croods (2013)

The Croods stars Emma Stone as the voice of Eep, a young girl who lives with her family called the Croods as they try to survive the world around them that wants to pick them off, but a chance encounter with a young boy named Guy (voice of Ryan Reynolds) could change everything about their world.

It is fair to say that I went into the Croods with very mixed expectations, I wasn't sure what the film would be like but the preview I saw back in January was promising, mainly due to Stone who has really come into her own as an actress, so was it worth the cinema dollars?

Well, sort of, the film is far from terrible don't get me wrong and there are things that I do like about it, mainly Stone's vocal work which really helps to lift the film as a whole and I even enjoyed Reynolds and Nic Cage in their vocal roles, Reynolds still has a very long way to go if he is to impress me as the new Connor MacLeod but here I thought he was pretty good which is something I very rarely say about him or Cage.

But alas, the film is also merely okay with a lot of it feeling like individual moments that shine but they fail to come together to create the satisfying whole in a way that the DVD animated movie "Justice League Doom" did and as for the visuals well they're pretty good but they also reminded me very much of Avatar in that you have the exotic rainforest, the wild flowers and the big creatures with one creature in particular very much reminding me of the Thanator beast from Cameron's film.

And as for the 3D well it's just dark, really dark even and as with 99.9% of most 3D visuals, doesn't add anything to the experience, this will be much better seen in 2D but then again so are most 3D films with Avatar being the exception.

So all in all the Croods is okay but it also reflects what has been a very weak start to the year in films so far this year, it's a shame that this will most likely be the only major kids film to be screened in cinemas over the holidays, surely the youth deserve better than this but then again Aladdin is out on DVD and that is worth your money more than this film is, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Dredd (2012)

Dredd stars Karl Urban as the titular Judge Dredd of the future, where 800 million people live in the ruins of the old world, one day however he is asked to take on a rookie for an assessment named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) as they go about a signal inside the Peach Trees complex, run by the wicked Ma-Ma (Lena Headey)

I thoroughly enjoyed this new take on Dredd, Alex Garland's script really nails the character and the world and it will quickly wash away the bad taste left by the Sly Stallone version of the character released in 1995, Urban is terrific in the role and his gruff demeanour really grows on you, Thirlby has a strong resemblance to Rachel McAdams but also delivers the goods as the young rookie on the job, how refreshing it is to see a strong female character in a film for once and not the borderline sexist stereotyping we see far too often as hey that's the easier way to go.

Another strong female character that needs mentioning is Ma-Ma herself, Headey plays the role like a complete bitch and doesn't resort to going over the top in the part as other actresses may be tempted to do when they get a role like this one and as a villain she's simply fantastic, cold and ruthless at the same time as well as being willing to show no mercy, again so refreshing to see a great female character in a film, it's a sad shame that there's so few of them in the movies these days.

But hey, Dredd is a thoroughly enjoyable action film and its absolutely worth seeing, 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Master (2012)

The Master is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell, a man who serves in the navy during World War 2 but when the war ends doesn't know what to do with himself, one night however he comes across a mysterious man named Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who may hold the key to his salvation.

The Master is certainly a weird film to be sure but it's one that also overcomes that to deliver what is a finely crafted film, Anderson's eye for direction and editing are on show throughout the whole film always making sure that things don't run on too long nor does he insert scenes and editing shots where he doesn't need to, happily letting scenes play on in a natural flow that is rarely seen in films today as there is a near constant need to have a edit every 2 seconds, Anderson doesn't do that and as a result the film flows a lot better and doesn't make you think that it runs too long for its own good.

Technically however the film is first rate with the cinematography, production design, costumes and musical score all being of very high quality and each element helps to immerse you in both the world of the film and the period in which its set and not once will you get bored looking or listening to any of it as there is always something new to look at in each frame.

But my last bout of praise has to go to the performances, Phoenix and Hoffman are very good and play off each other very well which helps to serve the relationship the two characters have in the film but my favourite performance in the film has to be the one by Amy Adams who reminds us all how good she can really be with the right part and here she makes you think that she is the Master of the film with her quiet sense of dignity and authority that also comes across as quietly chilling at times, definitely not one woman you would want to mess with.

But all in all, the Master is a well made film but it's also a film I would say that I admire more than I enjoyed which is not as some might say is a bad thing, far from it in my eyes but it would also be a hard film for me to recommend but if you are keen to see it then I will do just that if you're not or your unsure about it then I won't, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Justice League: Doom (2012)

Banded together from the remote areas of the world are 7 of the most sinister villains of all time: The Legion of Doom, dedicated to a single objective: The Conquest of the World, only one group can stop this global threat: The Justice League.

Justice League Doom is simply terrific in almost every way, the first reason is that it feels like a feature length film of the first two seasons of the animated series which most of the team behind this movie worked on also, I thought of some of the great multi part storylines the series had like "Twilight of the Gods", "In Blackest Night", "Wild Cards", "The Savage Time", "Starcrossed" and "And Injustice for All...".

But there are three key reasons this film really works:

The first is the cracker of a script by Dwayne McDuffie (sadly to be his last before his death in 2011), it has a real understanding of the characters, it uses its heroes and villains very effectively and it always has time for some great character moments amongst the wildly imaginative action scenes, McDuffie wrote some terrific stories for the animated series and its enormously sad he's gone, may he RIP.

The second is the voice acting, all the regulars from the animated series return but this time we see some changes: first of all Tim Daly returns to voice Superman and what a joyous occasion it is as it was his absence from the role in the series that held it back from being truly great and it's a joy to hear him here, second Nathan Fillion takes up the role of Green Lantern and it's an inspired choice for the part, I found him to be much better than Ryan Reynolds was in the live action film and lastly we see Bumper Robinson as Cyborg, a fun character in his own right that plays a key role in the film.

And last but certainly not least is the animation, it's simply fantastic as its fast and fluid and at times it gives the film a very cinematic feel, I wish I'd been able to see it on the big screen instead of at home as its hard to imagine a future live action Justice League movie being any better than this was in terms of combining great action, strong characterization and exciting animation.

And so, Justice League Doom is absolutely worth the time to watch it, it's exciting, fast paced, cinematic but always finds time to explore its heroes and villains and in terms of film productions both live action and animated it rarely gets better than this, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - True Lies (1994)

True Lies is directed by James Cameron and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Harry Tasker, a man happily married to his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) and has a teenage daughter named Dana (Eliza Dushku) but outside of this he leads a double life as a spy for the US Government, a double life that is about to collide.

True Lies sadly is Cameron's weakest film as a director for me, as a huge fan of some of his work over years (Aliens, Avatar, Titanic and his 2 Terminator films) this one just feels like the 2nd cousin of his for the most part very good body of work as a director and as someone who loves his directorial style its somewhat sad for me to admit this fact.

Don't get me wrong there are things about the film I do like, Arnold delivers a solid performance, no doubt helped by having Cameron as director as does Grant Heslov, Tom Arnold (weird I know), Art Malik and Charlton Heston on backup support, the film's James Bond-esque opening is quite fun and the finale in Florida is actually pretty good though it does go on a bit too long.

But sadly the film has a big flaw in it and that is its female characters and the attitude against them all throughout the film, frankly I hated it and to me it also seemed downright wrong given that all throughout his work Cameron has always had strong female characters that stood toe to toe with their male counterparts (Neytiri in Avatar, Sarah Connor in Terminator and Ripley in Aliens are just a few examples) whereas here they're just there to be rescued, used as a screaming prop in the climax, spied on and the like and in all honesty I really thought Cameron was better than this, I really did but alas even director's you really like pull this sort of thing once in a while.

And so, True Lies is the one James Cameron film I don't rate very highly at all and it's very sad to say that given how much I admire his work as a director and how influential he's been on me over the years, 1 out of 5.

Film Review - Side Effects (2013)

Side Effects is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Rooney Mara as Emily Taylor, a young woman whose husband (Channing Tatum) is coming out of jail after serving a 4 year sentence for Insider Trading, but the time he's served behind bars has left some devastating side effects on his young wife.

Side Effects for me, is merely okay, it's far from a terrible film but it's also not a real standout in terms of murder mystery thrillers, Mara effectively carries the film on her own two shoulders and is more than equal to the task, her and Jennifer Lawrence would have to be among the most talented actresses of their generation and it's easy to see why in the case of Mara, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones are also okay in their roles as Emily's doctors that she sees throughout the film though Channing Tatum merely across as "Token Hunk 101" and his character has very little to do with the proceedings.

But the film's biggest problem is the script by Scott Burns, at times it feels unfocused in terms of where to take its storyline and characters and how the various twists are played out made me think of "Jagged Edge" where it tried to be too clever for its own good in terms of who really did what and like that film, it fails at that task.

But hey as I said, it's far from terrible as a movie but it's also a film that's best saved for a Saturday Night DVD rental, a far better example of this type of film is one that ironically enough Roadshow themselves released in 1992 called Shattered with Tom Berenger, seek out a copy of that film instead of seeing this one as it's a much better mystery thriller film than this one is, 2 out of 5.