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When watching a film based on a true story, specially one that has been controversial and has received major attention from the press, I am inclined to speculate about the maze that lead to the chain of events. In an effort to recollect these events of what happened to Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002, the movie “A Mighty Heart” brings us much more than the facts. This is a film that was made with love, sensitivity and understanding from its planning to the final product.

After making political docudramas and movies like The Road to Guantanamo, and Welcome to Sarajevo, director Michael Winterbottom was chosen by producer Brad Pitt to conduct this movie. Winterbottom used Mariane Pearl’s book as an instrument to bring the big screen the bare truth and sense of reality that the book transpires. In doing so he met with the people that were close to Marianne at the time of the tragedy and asked the cast including Angelina Jolie, to meet on a personal basis with each of the characters they were going to interpret. For Jolie it was an honor to interpret the character of Marianne Pearl since from their first encounter, she was compelled with her story and only felt admiration for such a courageous and strong woman.

While watching this film the audience can get a better understanding of the political secrecy, religious ideology, and social issues that came to play in the death of Wall Street Journalist reporter Daniel Pearl. While this movie was filmed in Pakistan, India and France the backdrop scenery like the house keeper with the child at the Pearl’s residence, to the busy streets full of misery, and the senseless traffic jam, to the political riots all serve to bring life to the status of chaos going on in this country.

The plot contains the pregnant wife of Pearl desperately running against time in a foreign country where terrorist have mistaken her husband for a CIA agent pretending to be a journalist. It is made clear that being a Jew in this Arabian country did not help him and only added to the hatred of his terrorists. While the director used the supporting actors well, it is their role in the kidnapping what is mostly highlighted. One of the downfalls of this film is that some of the supporting actors lack of showing urgency to find Pearl and natural emotional distress over his death. I doubt that this was Winterbottom’s intention as Marianne clearly states how grateful she was for all the help received during the search for Pearl in one of the scenes.

The entire kidnapping maze from Pearl’s translator to his contacts and the assistance of the authorities in this country as well as the US involvement is clear and well elaborated. While all of this adds on to an entertaining suspenseful film, it is a sad, touching and personal story that has Angelina and Brad’s mission written all over it. To bring to the world the truth about what is going on in other countries.

The Blu-ray contains basically the same special features found on the previous DVD release, with the disappointment that these special features are not in high definition. It includes “Journey of Passion: The Making of “A Mighty Heart”; a good 30 minutes documentary about the film production. It also includes a short featurette about The Committee to Protect Journalists and theatrical trailers.

Like it was expected Paramount Home Entertainment HD presentation of the film is better than the DVD. A full 1080P widescreen with a 1.85:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. Since most of the scenes in the film were shot during the day. The picture has vivid colors and zero saturation. I was not disappointed. All this visual experience is well complemented with a True HD 5.1 Dolby Digital for a good HD viewing pleasure

Review By Jen

Release Date: March 24, 2009

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FILM REVIEW: When John Lasseter was named chief creative officer and principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering, many believed that this was the turning point for the Disney Animation Studio. After years of disappointments in the animation film world. Lasseter who has been the Oscar®-winning director for “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2” and “Cars” was now in charge of taking the famous animation studios back to the top of the animation world.”Bolt” is the first film under the executive production of John Lasseter, Collaborating with John was Ed Catmull, the computer animation pioneer who helped create Pixar Animation Studios. The film also marks the directing debut of Chris Williams and Byron Howard.

Bolt avoids the mistakes made by previous Disney animation films. It is not just for little kids like “Chicken Little” and it doesn’t ignore little kids like “Meet the Robinsons”. The story has enough material to please all demographics. The film has the right combination of action, drama and comedy, however the film lacks that defined character that creates a clear connection with the audience.

The quality of the animation sees an improvement in “Bolt” compared to previous Disney releases, but still the animation is not as impressive as the animation from its sibling studio Pixar. In another note “Bolt” is Disney’s first animated feature to be conceived and designed for 3-D. The previous Disney animated features—“Chicken Little” and “Meet the Robinsons”—were released in 3-D versions, however the post-production conversion process was created outside of the Studio. This process paid off in the film, it gave the movie better 3-D scenes.

There is enough entertainment to make Bolt one of the good family films of the season. The Pixar influence was a major upgrade for the Disney Animation Studio, putting it on track to return to its prime days

BLU-RAY: The film is presented in 1080P widescreen in a 1.78:1 aspect ration preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless, giving the animation an outstation clarity that only high definition can provide. Not only the picture looks excellent in this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48kHz/24bit) that provides a good complement to the picture , however I was very surprised to find that the sound was not 7.1 DTS-HD. Not sure why Disney Home Entertainment decide to only have 5.1 audio in this release, after all Pinocchio’s blu-ray is 7.1.

The 3-disc Blu-ray is a Special Offer Combo Pack that also includes a DVD copy of the of the film, allowing fans to own this classic story on standard def DVD while they are preparing to upgrade to 1080p Hi-def Blu-ray, so consumers can “future-proof” their collection.

Bolt’s three disc blu-ray set presentation is very similar to the recent combo packs released by Disney Home Entertainment this year ( Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty). It is loaded with bonuses and features that will keep the whole family fully entertain. Many of these featurettes provide amazing details on how the film was created. Featurettes like “Creating The World of Bolt” , “Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt” and “A New Breed of Directors: A Filmmakers’ Journey” take viewers beyond the making of the film. It also includes the music video “I thought I lost You” performed by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta. Like it is usual with Disney DVD and Blu-ray releases, this release includes the game “Bolt’s Be Awesome Mission Game”, in which the players get to help Bolt defeat the Green-Eyed man. Finally the must watch featurette of this pack is “The Super Rhino Short”. This short animated film features probably the character that gave Bolt the best laughs, Rhino. This is a really funny short. Don’t miss it.

Also the blu-ray comes with DB-Live, which allow users to get exclusive online content, users get opportunity to chat, participate in movie challenges and access movie mail. Your blu-ray player will need to be connected to the internet, in order to access this features.

Overall this release will be a good addition to your Disney collection.

Release Date: March 22, 2009

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I first saw Primal Fear in the year 1996 and went in knowing nothing about it. It didn’t take long for me to get wrapped up in the movie and newcomer Edward Norton’s performance. Near the movie’s end, I felt I was hit with a steel bat across the face at it’s the first movie I can remember seeing with such an effective twisted ending. The marvelous ending and the performance by Edward Norton makes this movie an instant classic. Luckily, Paramount is releasing a special edition of the movie on Blu-ray called the Hard Evidence Edition. I’ve seen this movie on DVD a bunch of times and was delighted to re-visit it years later on Blu-ray.

In Primal Fear, Martin Vail (Richard Gere) is a famous defense lawyer who sets out to defend Aaron
(Edward Norton) who has just been accused of killing an Archbishop. Aaron tells Vail that he doesn’t remember anything except blacking out. Vail, becomes convinced that Aaron is innocent. However, it is soon discovered that Aaron suffers from multiple personality disorder and that he killed the Archbishop after blacking out and becoming the angry, aggressive Roy. Vail now sets up the court to declare his client insane and the director sets the audience up for a twist.

Watching this movie back in 1996 was a real joy and discovering Norton’s performance felt like something special. The movie on its own is good and effective, but Edward Norton’s performance takes it to the next level. Which is why it is without question that Norton got his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. Cuba Gooding ended up winner that year for his performance in Jerry Maguire.

The picture looks good on Blu-ray High-definition, but suffers from looking a bit soft and flat. However it does look a lot better than the DVD version. The disc also contains a bunch of extra features including The Final Verdict-where producer Luccheis speaks about keeping the ending of the book, Casting Edward Norton-a delightful interview with Norton and his experience during the casting, and The Psychology of Guilt-a feature discussing the insanity defend and multiple personality disorder.

Review By Brad Peterson

Release Date: March 10, 2009

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Lately, I’ve been watching a steady steam of Hollywood movies and so when I got the chance to review Let the Right One In, a movie I’ve been hearing very good thing about, I jumped at it. This film tells the story of a lonely 12 year old boy named Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) who is bullied at school. Oskar fantasies about getting back at his bullies. Oskar finds an unusual friend in his new neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson). Eli is also lonely however her predicament is different since she’s a 200 year old vampire in a 12-year old girl’s body.

That’s all I’ll say about the plot because the least you know, the more you’ll enjoy the movie. The story unfolds wonderfully under the crafty direction of Tomas Alfredson and the writer Ajvide Lindqvist who wrote both the screenplay and the novel. With a running time of about two hours, the movie is never boring and keeps the excitement high now know exactly where the movie is going to take us.

The other thing that Tomas and Ajvide have manage to do, is present a fresh take on the vampire genre. This is perhaps the most original movie I’ve seen in a while and a breath of fresh air. I can’t recommend it enough. The performance by Lina Leandersson is pitch perfect mixing the viciousness of a vampire with the sweetness and innocence of a 12 year old girl.

Luckily for us Magnet is releasing this movie on Blu-ray in 1080P High definition. The movie look pretty good on Blu-ray. The color palette, which the director says are Swedish’s colors, feels and looks appropriate. The disc also features four deleted scenes and a seven minute behind the scenes with director Tomas Alfredson.

Review By Brad Peterson

Release Date: March 10, 2009

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