Brand New Day (2009/Fox Blu-ray)/Gary Moore:
Live At Montreux 2010 (Eagle Blu-ray)/Go
For It! (2011/Lionsgate DVD)/Joe
Strummer: Get Up, Stand Up (MVD DVD)/Paul
Rodgers & Friends Live At Montreux 1994 (Eagle DVD)/Peter, Paul & Mary: The Holiday Concert (Shout! Factory DVD)/Pretenders Loose In L.A. (Eagle Blu-ray)/Procol Harum: Live At The Union Chapel (Eagle Blu-ray)/Yes: Symphonic Live (Eagle Blu-ray)
Picture: B-/B-/C/C+/C+/C/B-/B-/C+ Sound: B/B/C+/C+/B-/C+/B/B/B Extras: D/C/C/B/C-/D/C/C/C Main Programs: C+/B-/C+/B/B-/C+/B-/B-/B
Our
latest cycle of music titles are more diverse than usual, including some
upgrades to older DVD releases and revisiting some favorites.
Rachel
Perkins’ Brand New Day (2009) is the
first of two narrative music films here, trying to be a comedy, inspirational
musical, drama and more in this tale of a preacher (Geoffrey Rush) tries to
help one of his young flock, even if it means chasing him all over Australia in
this mixed bag of a somewhat predictable if somewhat energetic film that is not
certain if it is a musical, partial gospel operetta and part soundtrack driven
non-musical or any combination thereof.
Because it is more all over the place than its characters, I could not take
this seriously and it is not able to build up any character or story
development. Trying to appeal to a music
video audience was a mistake, but it is interesting when it works. There are no extras.
I knew
Eagle might be pushing it when they issued the DVD/CD set Gary Moore: The Definitive Montreux Collection a little while ago
as it only ran up to 2001, so now we have Gary
Moore: Live At Montreux 2010 on Blu-ray and none of this footage is on that
set, which you can read more about here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9743/Gary+Moore+%E2%80%93+The+Defin
There was
even another Montreux DVD you can reach at that link, though this is not Moore’s first Blu-ray, as
Eagle issued Gary Moore & Friends –
One Night In Dublin: A Tribute To Phil Lynott in the format you can read
about here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8444/Gary+Moore+&+Friends+%E2%80%93
This new
set (including four bonus songs from his 1997
Montreux show we already covered in the compilation set) is as good as any
of those and is as good as any of the releases to date. A paper pullout with an essay is also
included.
The other
narrative film is Carmen Marron’s decent Go
For It! (2011) about several young Latino ladies trying to make it as
dancers that manages to rise above its formula storyline to achieve a true
female discourse in its story of trying to make it that is more interesting for
the women than for the story. A
soundtrack-driven dance non-musical, it is led by Aimee Garcia and Gina
Rodriguez who have appeal and some acting capacities making this more watchable
than you might think. We have seen
better, but I liked the differences. A
feature length audio commentary by the director is the only extra.
Our only
documentary program is the excellent Joe
Strummer: Get Up, Stand Up program from the gang at Music Video
distributors and Chrome Dreams, a two disc set combining the previously
released Viva Joe Strummer with a CD
of interview materials never before issued.
This is about Strummer himself as much as his work with The Clash and as
I watched, I once again realized what an immense talent and great man we lost
too soon and how much he is missed, especially at times like this.
Eagle
also has more Paul Rodgers with Paul
Rodgers & Friends Live At Montreux 1994, a DVD that follows their
Blu-ray and DVD/CD set release of the successful Live At Glasgow set you can read more about at these links:
Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8511/Paul+Rodgers+%E2%80%93+Live+In
DVD/CD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5406/Paul+Rodgers+%E2%80%93+Live+In
This is
another solid concert (with Rodgers intro) including guest musicians Brian May,
Jason Bonham, Steve Lukather, Eddie Kirkland, Luther Allison, Neil Schon, Ian
Hatton, Claude Nobs, John Smithson and Sherman Robertson playing his hits (Feel Like Making Love, All Right Now) and some other familiar
songs in a really decent show fans are bound to enjoy and non fans will be
impressed with. A paper pullout with an
essay and new intro by Rodgers are also included.
Shout!
Factory is following their DVD Reunion
Concert (reviewed elsewhere on this site) of Peter, Paul & Mary with the unexpected The Holiday Concert so for those of you who think of them as “Godless
Folk Atheists” will discover they are really a part of the Religious Left in
full force here singing their hits again, as well as Silent Night, O Come All Ye
Faithful and Hark The Herald Angel
Sing (which they do not to as well as The Peanuts Gang) but is not awful
and those interested in something different for a holiday title mighty want to
look into it. There are no extras.
Pretenders Loose In L.A., Procol Harum: Live At The Union Chapel and Yes: Symphonic Live are titles we previously reviewed on DVD a
while ago, as these links will confirm:
Pretenders Loose In L.A.
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/503/Pretenders+Loose+In+L.A.
Procol Harum: Live At The Union Chapel
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1546/Procol+Harum+-+Live+In+The+Union
Yes: Symphonic Live
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/207/Symphonic+Yes+Live+(DVD)
These new
Eagle Blu-ray editions are just nicer-enough performers to surpass those older
DVD editions and are now the preferred format versions, both including the same
extras. Harum fans might also be
interested in their Danish National
Concert Orchestra DVD I covered a while ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8653/Procol+Harum+In+Concert+with+The+
Yes: of Live At Montreux 2003 was Eagle’s successful, controversial (some
critics liked it like myself, others were not happy with the playback
performance) concert release that you can read about my Blu-ray coverage at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5731/Yes+%E2%80%93+Live+At+Montreux
And don’t
forget the Classic Artists DVD on
Yes you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6530/Yes+%E2%80%93+Classic+Artists+(I
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the Eagle Blu-rays are
about the same as the 1080p 2.35 X 1 AVC @ 23 MBPS digital High Definition
image on Day, save the Yes disc which has more motion blur and
image doubling than expected. They are
otherwise the visual winners on this list.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Go is the softest here as shot on Digital video and the 1.33 X 1 Holiday DVD
being as soft from being an old analog NTSC taping that has not aged well. That leaves the 1.33 X 1 on the Strummer and Rodgers DVDs looking better, but also limited by their NTSC
sources.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on all five Blu-rays are solid,
excellent and nice overall, though the concerts previously issued on DVD show
their limits in these newer versions but sound more naturalistic and
smooth. The Rodgers DVD has regular DTS 5.1 mix (along with Dolby Digital 5.1
and 2.0 Stereo mixes not as good) that sound good for their age, but is pushing
the audio a bit. Go offers Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes for a low-budget
production is a stereo affair at best, while the Holiday DVD is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono that is passable. That leaves set Strummer set with a DVD that
is solid Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with some monophonic sound and a PCM 2.0
16/44.1 CD that is simple stereo at best.
- Nicholas Sheffo
