Doc
Savage: The Man Of Bronze
(1975/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Finding
Dory (2016/PIXAR/Disney
Blu-ray w/DVD)/The Legend
Of Tarzan (2016/Warner
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Nine Lives
(2016/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/Star
Wars: The Force Awakens 3D
(2015/Lucasfilm/Disney Blu-ray 3D w/Blu-ray + DVD)
3D
Picture: B+ Picture: B/B+ & C+/B & C/B- & C/B+ &
C+ Sound: C+/B+ & C+/B+ & B-/B & C+/B & C+
Extras: C-/C+/C/C-/B+ Films: C+/C+/C+/C-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Doc
Savage
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here's
our latest set of of big family releases, including two upgrades and
two revisitings of established hit characters...
Michael
Anderson's Doc
Savage: The Man Of Bronze
(1975) has been the biggest-selling DVD in Warner Archive history, as
the cult film continues to find an audience.
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12504/Doc+Savage:+The+Man+Of+Bronze+(1975/Warne
Now,
they've decided to issue a new upgraded Blu-ray version that is the
same transfer with only the one trailer, but the image upgrade is
worth it, outdoing the DVD and showing just how good this film can
look down to its production design. Thus, more on the tech portion
can be found below.
Andrew
Stanton is back in high CG animated form with Finding
Dory
(2016), a belated sequel to the hugely successful Finding
Nemo
(2003) that we covered in its deluxe Blu-ray 3D set at this link....
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11938/Disney/PIXAR+Blu-ray+3D+sets:+Finding+Nemo
The
story is about how Dory (well-voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) loses her
way one day after her parents warnings and is swept away, leaving her
spending most of the time trying to get back home. Without overdoing
any illicit appeals to pity, running into Nemo in the process, we get
a good adventure that has some fun moments but nothing on par with
the original Nemo
film. The script can only do so much in this case being a safe
sequel, safe because this is a expensive production, but the money is
on the screen.
Pixar/Disney
have even had better sequels, but there's still enough here to enjoy
and I give it points for just being different than expected. The
rest of the voice cast includes Hayden Rolence as Nemo, Albert
Brooks, Ed O'Neill, Idris Elba, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Kate
McKinnon, Dominic West, Bill Hader, Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney,
Stephen Root, Austin Pendleton and Sigourney Weaver.
Extras
are split on two discs,
with Blu-ray Disc One offering the CGI short Piper
(about 6 minutes), Marine
Life Interviews
is made to look like old footage about Dory, The
Octopus That Nearly Broke Pixar
(just over 9 minutes) about how hard it was to do an octopus, What
Were We Talking About? (4.5 minutes) dealing with Dory's short-term
memory, Casual
Carpool (nearly
4 minutes) has Director Andrew Stanton and several voice cast, which
goes well with Animation
& Acting
(about 7 minutes) showing how intricate the voice acting here can
get, Jenna Ortega looks at the real-life research on sea life for the
film in Deep
in the Kelp
(3:20), Creature
Features
(just over 3 minutes) has some of the voice cast talk about their
characters and we get a feature length audio commentary track with
Director Stanton, Co-Director Angus MacLane, & Producer Lindsey
Collins that is not bad.
Blu-ray
Disc Two adds a 5-part Behind the Scenes featurette, Deleted Scenes,
various trailers that promoted the film, Skating
& Sketching with Jason Deamer
(about 4:15) with longtime PIXAR employee & Character Art
Director on character design & the studio itself, Dory's
Theme
(about 5 minutes) has Director Stanton talking music for the film
with Composer Tom Newman & Music Editor Bill Bernstein, Rough
Day On The Reef
(just over a minute): A collection of fun computer glitches from the
making of the movie, the odd Finding
Nemo As Told by Emoji,
Fish
Schticks (just
over 3.5 minutes) comedy bits and we get the also-odd Living
Aquariums.
The 4 digitally-animated 'tanks' include Open
Ocean, Sea Grass, Stingrays
& Swim
To The Surface.
David
Yates' The
Legend Of Tarzan
(2016) is the most expensive live-action film on the character to
date, hoping to duplicate the Disney animated success (minus the
musical and outright comedy part) in the flesh, bone and CGI world.
Alexander Skarsgard is the title character, left in Africa when his
parent die, to be raised by apes. Margot Robbie (Suicide
Squad)
shows up as Jane and though they make a good pair, we don't get the
chemistry between them we should, while Skarsgard's ape-man is partly
desexualized by the script and decolored digital work. However, the
script is more like a checklist of political correctness than any
kind of potential romance adventure and things get more odd as they
go along.
Christoph
Waltz is a boo hiss villain, genocide is nearly trivialized, too much
of this period piece is sabotaged by contemporary dialogue &
digital visuals that try too hard or are dull, Samuel L. Jackson
shows up as an eventual friend to help Tarzan, Djimon Hounsou as a
tribal adversary, then we get those digital animals. Since this is
not an outright fantasy film like Disney's new live-action Jungle
Book
(the same 2016 year, reviewed elsewhere on this site), this film's
casual use of digital animals,no matter how the CG animation turned
out, has to be more careful and smart about integrating them with the
live actors. The producers, apparently unsure of how to make this
all work (partly from overproduction they chose) have way too much
confidence in the CG animals.
There
is nothing wondrous about them or just about any CG animation at this
point. Having CG animation or Ultra HD cameras does not make you
Spielberg automatically, a common denominator mistake of most such
films of the last few decades, though Director Yates takes things
seriously on his end, barely holding all this together. With that
said, by losing the action, any suspense and trying to do this as
'high art' or a literature-like drama, it runs into the same trouble
Greystoke
(reviewed on Warner Archive Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and that
is to be boring and run against what creator Edgar Rice Burroughs
intended. Even box office dud John
Carter
(directed by Andrew Stanton, now becoming a cult item) and Doc
Savage
(reviewed above) are closer to their source material.
Ultimately,
the film is a victim of mixed and contradictory ambitions. Who is
this film really made for? Not younger audiences as the script
things its inoculating us against any racism and/or colonialism the
original books might offer. That might be intellectual essay
writing, but it is to good storytelling. The cast is likable, but
the script and odd mix of producers sort of leave them stranded. A
better script would have settled any baggage in the first 10 minutes,
then they could have gone on with the film and it could have been a
real winner. The character is still great and commercial as Disney's
hit run recently proved, even of the many live-action TV versions did
not.
The
Legend Of Tarzan
forgets to really show the legend (Jackson's function at times is
like characters in a Western dealing with fact versus myth, but the
script can't even do that well) because it is shying away from it.
Instead, we get a sometimes bizarre mix of elements that never add
up. Jim Broadbent and Ben Chaplin also star.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds trailers for
upcoming other films, five Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes:
15+ minutes of Tarzan
Reborn,
the slightly longer Creating
The Virtual Jungle,
three action scenes (also combined at about the same length!) dubbed
Battles
and Bare-Knuckled Brawls,
Tarzan
and Jane's Unfailing Love
(6 minutes), and the 2.5 minutes Gabon
To The Screen
and a PSA Stop
Ivory
in that is strongly and rightly against poaching.
Barry
Sonnenfeld's Nine
Lives
(2016) is yet another dud from the one-time cinematographer, this
time with Kevin Spacey as a billionaire not able to be with his
daughter or wife (Jennifer Garner) enough, so he buys them a cat, but
in a bizarre twist of fate, his mind and soul land up in the cat's
body! Christopher walken also is cast to try to make this absurd and
predictable romp somehow funnier, but it is barely watchable to begin
with despite the talent.
The
script is uninspired, tired, forgettable and does zero to get the
audience to even begin to attempt to suspend disbelief. I'm in
disbelief this was even greenlit. If it was an attempt to have Look
Who's Talking
with a cat in place of babies, BAD IDEA!
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the discs add two Making Of
featurettes: Letting
The Cat Out Of The Bag
and Russian
For Harding Cats.
Last
but not least, J.J. Abrams' Star
Wars: The Force Awakens 3D
(2015) upgrades the original Blu-ray/DVD set we covered a few months
ago at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14128/Star+Wars:+The+Force+Awakens+(2015/Lucasfilm
The
Lucasfilm/Disney
co-production adds a Blu-ray 3D with the previously-issued Blu-ray
and DVD from that review. Thus, extras from that now older set
including Digital Copy, Deleted Scenes and featurettes Secrets
Of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey,
The
Story Awakens: The Table Read,
Building
BB-8,
Crafting
Creatures,
Blueprint
Of A Battle: The Snow Fight,
Force
For Change,
ILM:
The Visual Magic Of The Force
and John
Williams: The Seventh Symphony.
New extras is the very nice, solid DigiPak case box include a
lenticular cover, a new Abrams feature length audio commentary track,
Deleted Scenes and three new featurettes: Dressing
The Galaxy,
Foley:
A Sonic Tale,
and Sounds
Of The Resistance.
The additions are all most welcome.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 MVC-encoded 3-D - Full Resolution digital High
Definition image on Force
is very impressive, starting with Kodak Vision 3-series 35mm and 65mm
negative film, then a conversion that is nice and smooth throughout.
The regular 2D Blu-ray included here as well still looks fine and
this is a very well-shot film, so the 3D has great moments, but the
2D still has great moments as well. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD is passable at best, now with the 3D also
making it look limited.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Savage
can show the age of the materials used, but as noted above, look
better than the
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the DVD reviewed before and
I should add the color improves with the definition. Unless a ton of
money was spent, I don't see this looking much better than it does
here.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Dory
is very similar in high quality to that of Nemo
years ago, in part because the makers are keeping with the style of
the original film, yet some of the animation is more complex and
'human world' animation maybe too slightly silly for its own good.
Still, it is impressive throughout in keeping with the best Pixar
Blu-ray releases to date. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Tarzan
is the first all-digital live action shoot of the character
theatrically and it looks pretty good for that, but detail, depth and
Video Black are not always top rate, though we expect the 4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray might correct these limits. Thus, it has some nice shots,
but never looks as good as Greystoke
(reviewed on Warner Archive Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), yet not
as flat and problematic as the Bo Derek/Miles O'Keefe and more recent
Warner/Casper Van Dien theatrical dud. The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on the included DVD is
especially soft and unwatchable.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 AVC @ 38 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer
on Lives
is a mixed HD shoot, the poorest Blu-ray performer on the list and
has some bad shots and even a little motion blur throughout. I just
thought it all looked a little strained and the
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the included DVD is so soft
that it almost landed up being rated lower than I gave it.
Dory,
Tarzan
and Force
were all Dolby Atmos 11.1 theatrical sound releases, but only Tarzan
is here in that format, which has its moments, but is not so
shockingly spectacular that it offers many demo moments and even some
sound moments disappoint. Dory
and Force
(the latter with the same sometimes mixdown issues from the earlier
Blu-ray) are here in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mixes that
leave Dory
tying Tarzan
for best sonic performer here and Force
a close second. Needless to say the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on
their respective DVDs sound poorer and are adequate-at-best.
Lives
has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that is very
uninspired and its soundfield is weak, so the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1
is really weak. That leaves us with the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0
Mono lossless mix on Savage
sounding warmer and a little thicker than the older DVD's lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono sound, but the new track also reveals some harmonic
distortion and that leaves the improvements more limited than I would
have liked.
To
order the Doc
Savage
Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
