Eric
Clapton: Planes, Trains & Eric
(2014/Eagle Blu-ray)/Jose
Feliciano: Super Audio Best
(1968 - 1982, 2014/Intermusic S.A./Top Music SA-CD/Super Audio
CD)/Step Up: All In
(2014 aka Step Up
5/Summit/Lionsgate
Blu-ray)/Yankee Doodle
Dandy (1942/Warner
Archive Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/X/B-/B Sound: B-/B & B-/B+/B- Extras: C/C-/C/B
Main Programs: B/B/C/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Jose
Feliciano
Import Super Audio CD (with CD-compatible tracks) only available from
our friends at Top Music International, while Yankee
Doodle Dandy
is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive
series. Both can be ordered from the links below.
Here's
more music titles you should know about...
We've
covered many titles with Eric Clapton over the years, from concerts,
to albums and documentaries. Eric
Clapton: Planes, Trains & Eric
(2014) is a new Blu-ray releases that covers them all with the man on
tour in Japan, reflecting on his life and career while playing some
shows. Running about 2.5 hours (!), it is always interesting, though
some may find it more than enough at a certain point. Still, it is
an amazing career, he can still play as well as ever, the crowds and
fans still rightly love him and he still has some funny things to
say. That makes it one of the better titles and a great place for
those less familiar with him to start.
Extras
include an nicely illustrated booklet on the shoot including
informative text, while the Blu-ray adds two bonus music
performances: Nobody Knows
You (When You're Down & Out)
and Alabama Woman Blues.
To see our growing Clapton coverage, go to this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=clapton
Jose
Feliciano: Super Audio Best
(1968 - 1982) is the latest hits set from the always amazing
Intermusic S.A./Top Music label, issuing CDs, advanced CDs and
especially in this case, the great and ever-underrated SA-CD/Super
Audio CD format.
One of the best independents anywhere issuing such collections, they
go out of their way to make a great disc and here are the technical
specifications on this one:
32bits/192kHz
High Resolution Master
Remastered
by Povee Chan
SADiE
Digital Precision Mastering
32bits/192kHz
High Resolution Mastering
Monitor
Power-Amplifier: Lavardin Model IT
Mastering
Monitor: Audioplan KPNZERT III
Power
System: Isoclean Power Conditioning System
Mastered
with Black Rhodium Cable
Hybrid
Stereo, Plays on all SACD and CD Players
Made
in by Sony
This
includes just about every major English-language hit he ever had and
some some great covers, even if it excludes that certain holiday song
of his. His two big 1968 Top 40s and many other are included as
follows:
Light
My Fire (hit remake of The Doors hit)
Rain
La
Bamba (remake of Richie Valens hit)
Hi-Heel
Sneakers
Che
Sera Sera
In
My Life (remake of Beatles classic)
The
Last Time
California
Dreamin' (remake of The Mamas & The Papas hit)
Angela
(The Theme from Aaron Loves Angela, a Columbia Picture)
Time
After Time
Jealous
Guy (remake of John Lennon classic)
Volare
Daniel
(remake of Elton John classic)
Peago
Samba
Pa Ti
Chico
& The Man (The Theme From,)
It
is hard and almost criminal he did not have more pop chart hits, but
he still was played plenty on radio worldwide, his albums sold well
and his tours were always popular. This set reminds us just what a
great music artist he always was and still is, groundbreaking on many
ways and like all real artists, about something. Outside of superior
vinyl pressings, I cannot imagine these songs sounding any better.
Also, this may be the first time the theme song from a classic TV
sitcom made it to SA-CD!
A
paper pullout with some brief text is the only extra, but we have
covered Feliciano a few years ago in a solid Jose
Feliciano Band DVD show
you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8856/Inakustik/Music+Video+Distributors+Jazz/Blues+Blu
Trish
Sie's Step Up: All In
(2014, aka Step Up 5)
has the now-zombie-like franchise notching its fifth entry in 8
years, partly from switching studios and partly because there were
likely doubts as to whether to continue or not. To call this a
musical, even a backstage musical, is a real big stretch. The
storyline and plot are thinner than sheet music and it does continue
with most of the characters from the last outing, in not-the-best 3D.
The overly simple plot gives the characters an excuse to go to Las
Vegas, but with hardly any viva
to it.
Nothing
is really new here, predictable as anything, but some of the dancing
and their huge efforts to pretend this is original is almost amusing.
Any moments worth watching happen between minutes of chunks (pun
intended) of boredom, so don't operate heavy machinery while watching
unless you have a superior sound system to play this one on. More on
that below. Otherwise, this is for diehard fans only. If you are
bored, try something else.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds three Making
Of featurettes, Deleted
Scenes, a feature length audio commentary track with Director
Sie and lead actor Briana Evigan, The Vortex Dance Index and
Ryan's Favorite Dance Scenes with
option commentary, including some of the dancing minus credits. For
more on this series, here is our Blu-ray overage of most of its
predecessors:
Step
Up (2006)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11708/Cover+Girl+(1944/Columbia/Twilight+Time+Limite
Step
Up 2: The Streets (2008)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7259/Step+Up+2:+The+Streets+(Blu-ray+++DVD-Video
Step
Up 3D (2010)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10618/Legend+Of+The+Guardians:+The+Owls+Of+Ga
Last
but not least is Michael Curtiz's Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942), the
George M. Cohan backstage musical biopic where James Cagney stunned
Hollywood by breaking out of his Gangster genre mode and made one of
the most fun, patriotic, rapid-paced such films ever. Done in
flashback and Warner's particular idea of ironic wit, an older Cohan
(Cagney in aged make-up) recalls his past (even living out of a
suitcase) to no less than Franklin D. Roosevelt with some great
humor, serious moments and as parallel to the rise of the United
States itself as a superpower. Of course, it is more poignant as it
came out during WWII, giving a special intertextual value, but it
holds up pretty well as the epitome of a solid Classical Hollywood
musical without letting the biopic formula trip it up.
Besides
the studio putting up a top dollar budget, we get a well-cast romp
with support from Walter Huston, Joan Leslie, Irene Manning, Rosemary
DeCamp, George Tobias, Francis Langford, Eddie Foy Jr. and Jeanne
Cagney. A real labor of love for Cagney, the film has a joy to it
that
continues
to shine through and is more than worthy of rediscovery, especially
when you can see how incredible the glorious black and white really
is in this impressive Blu-ray edition. With that, who needs the
sloppy childishness of a colorized version?
Extras
imported and upgraded from the DVD edition include a Leonard Maltin
hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1942 set with a Casablanca
trailer, 1942 newsreel, Warner Bros. short "Beyond the Call
of Duty", Warner Bros. vintage cartoon classics "Bugs
Bunny Gets The Boid" and "Yankee Doodle Daffy"
in 1080p & real 3-strip Technicolor (!); James Cagney in wartime
short "You, John Jones"; Yankee Doodle Dandy
theatrical trailer; Let Freedom Sing!: The Story of Yankee Doodle
Dandy documentary; another solid feature length audio commentary
with Warner Bros. historian Rudy Behlmer; "John Travolta
remembers James Cagney" featurette and audio-only extras:
radio show and pre-recording session outtakes/rehearsals.
The
1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer
on Clapton
is mostly a new HD shoot with hardly any other footage from anywhere
else, but is fine for what it is, but we get a little noise during
the shows and interviews albeit minor. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital
High Definition image transfer on Step
is not in 3D this time, but also has some of the same kinds of detail
and noise flaws, though its use of color is to be commended. But it
is the new 1080p 1.33 X 1 black and white digital High Definition
image on Dandy
from a terrific transfer from well-preserved 35mm elements that is
the best entry on the list. Detail and depth are superior, shot by
the legendary Director
of Photography James Wong Howe, A.S.C. (Seconds,
Hud,
Funny
Lady,
Picnic,
Bell,
Book & Candle,
The
Rose Tattoo)
never allows the monochrome film to become Noir dark, but instead
delivers the top-rate version of the kind of slick, high-grade,
Warner A-movie look throughout. Note the amazing detail, depth and
other great shots few could get as he does. It is one of the reasons
it golds up 72+ years and counting, with only minor issues if that.
Impressive!
We
get a wide variety of very high fidelity audio performance between
the three newer releases. Step Up has been upgraded to Dolby
Atmos 11.1 sound for this release, allowing it to join the fourth
Transformers film as one of the first Blu-rays to offer the new
advanced sound mix, though you will get Dolby TrueHD 7.1 if you do
not have an 11.1 receiver and set up, et al. The sound is the
default highlight of this release, even when it is a bit mechanical
and possibly last-minute to be one of the first discs in the new
format. Too bad the film is not up to the sound possibilities, but
this is the gimmick to replace the awkward 3D from the last releases.
The
also ever-incredible DSD (Direct Stream Digital, am extremely high
definition audio format) sound format is feature on the Feliciano
SA-CD as 2-channel stereo only, but its warmth, fullness and fidelity
at its best can compete with the Dolby Atmos track with no problem.
Not
to be left out, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.0 lossless mix on the
Clapton
Blu-ray also shows the limits of the Step
Up
mix with smoother, more musical recording quality that is well mixed
and presented when the concert footage is on, even in the PCM 2.0
Stereo version, but that latter mix has its limits. The interviews
are simple stereo at best, as expected.
Finally,
Yankee
has been upgraded to a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 lossless mix that
cannot compete with the other releases, but shows how much money
Warner spent at the time to make sure this sounded as good as it
could with sound quality no film or vinyl format of the time could
have captured. For those reasons, the playback will surprise those
used to hearing it in older versions. Now we have the definitive
sonic presentation. The supplement cartoons, et all, are presented
only in lossy Dolby Digital.
To
find out more about ordering the Jose Feliciano SA-CD, start
with this link, then go to the HOW TO ORDER tab on the left-hand side
column:
http://www.topmusic.com/tm-sacd7021.2.htm
The
direct order link is:
http://www.topmusic.com/to-order.htm
… and
to order the Yankee
Doodle Dandy
Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive
releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
