The Ron Howard Spotlight Collection (Universal DVD)
Picture/Sound/Extras/Film:
Backdraft
B-/B-/B/B-
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4318/Backdraft+–+2+Disc+Anniversary
Cinderella Man
B-/B/B+/B+
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3719/Cinderella+Man+(HD-DVD)
A Beautiful Mind
C+/B-/B-/B-
Apollo 13
B-/B-/C/C
A new
collection of four of Ron Howard’s biggest hits at Universal Pictures to date
are now out in a single box set dubbed The
Ron Howard Spotlight Collection on DVD and includes two sets we have
covered before, as noted above. They
include coverage of the now-defunct, out-of-print HD-DVDs of Backdraft and Cinderella Man. I maintain
that Backdraft was a breakthrough
for Howard and that Cinderella Man
is the most underrated film he’ll ever make.
A Beautiful Mind is also one of his better films,
getting him the respect he deserved and featuring Russell Crowe in yet another
great performance as mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. who suffers the
nightmare of schizophrenia and somehow manages to use his weaknesses as
strengths. It was controversial at the
time for being partly inaccurate about the man (too much to go into here) and
that was beside the point. It tells
about his triumph over a mental illness that still has not been conquered and
holds up pretty well. David Cronenberg
thought it may have not dealt wit the illness well enough and made the film Spider, which makes for some
interesting comparisons. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 transfer here is the same soft one from the
first release and the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is good, but both make me wish for
the Blu-ray. Extras include deleted
scenes, two featurettes and Howard’s feature-length commentary.
Apollo 13 was one of the first-ever HD-DVDs
and we did not get a copy to cover, but it was noisy, overly grainy (versus the
35mm print) and unimpressive overall, which is odd considering how good the Tom
Hanks moon-flight-gone-wrong film looks here in color and detail. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad, but
this is my least favorite film here and the shorter IMAX version always seemed
like a good idea to me. This is just too
sappy and safe, but it remains a hit and has its fans. Extras include two featurettes and Howard’s
feature-length commentary.
That
makes this new set a pretty good set and in the fancy box it comes in, a nice
gift idea, but the Blu-rays cannot be far behind and high def fans might want
to wait. By that time, they might get Apollo 13 to look better than it does
here.
- Nicholas Sheffo
