Tag: Blu-ray

The Sound of Music – 45th Anniversary Edition

MPAA Rated – G
It’s 2:55 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

The Sound of Music
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
MPAA Rated: G
Released By: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Kiddie Movie: Good for the whole family!
Date Movie: Unless she likes lots of violence and nudity.
Gratuitous Sex: Nope.
Gratuitous Violence: Hinted.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Some chuckles.
Memorable Scene: Yes, you can sing-a-long to everything.
Memorable Quote: Nothing stands out.
Directed By: Roger Wise

Generally I’m not a fan of Blu-ray extras. Why? Because many a time they are useless add-ons, too complicated to play, or just seem like they are put there to make you feel better for spending extra bucks. This is definitely not the case with the 45th Anniversary Edition of “The Sound of Music” because, for a change, I thought they were a great addition, a real reason to upgrade to the Blu-ray generation if you’ve been waiting to do so, and the movie looks great, too.

I don’t know if I really have to explain the story of “The Sound of Music,” but the basic of this classic is simply that it tells the adapted for stage and screen story of the Von Trapp family, living their lives in Austria at the time Hitler is starting his rise. Maria (Julie Andres) ends up out of the convent and at the household to take care of the Von Trapp children while Dad Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) attends to his Captain duties. Meanwhile, the good Captain is sweet on The Baroness (Eleanor Parker). While Maria works on taming the children and helping them learn to sing, she falls for the Captain, the Captain falls for her, the children love Maria, they become a family, and Hitler becomes a monster (though we don’t really see this part).

Torn between his duty and his family, we know how the good Captain wants to live his life, the Von Trapp singers woo a crowd, and freedom is right across the mountains.

Look, everyone knows this classic, even me, now, as for years I had never seen the movie in its entirety until I met my BFF (She loves the movie – and rightly so), and yes, even I think it’s a classic. Any other release of this movie would just lend itself to a “Yup, it’s a classic, go ahead and get the disc so you can watch it whenever the feeling strikes you,” but this Blu-ray release lends itself to, if you are any kind of fan of “The Sound of Music,” to full-blown Blu-rayness. For one, combine the Blu-ray player with your way-cool big screen that you are getting this Christmas, and this movie just looks great. It’s a scenic masterpiece to begin with, so put those aspects together and you’ll love the movie even more.

Along with its looking good-ness, the Blu-ray extras don’t stop there. Nope, you also get a sing-a-long track – adding the lyrics to all of the songs as the movie plays (Sure, you may think you know all of the words, but give it a shot!), a trivia track that gives you lots of little tidbits about the movie and the people involved, and some fun photos from while the movie was being made. Then, if that isn’t enough, there is a second Blu-ray disc with even more, like a very detailed “Making of” which also talks about the stage version, and also a nice feature on the Von Trapp family. Here is also where you will find more stuff about Rodgers and Hammerstein, screen tests, and more.

And yes, I know there is a basic DVD for those of you who still have one of those, so that’s nice, and it does give you some sing-a-long goodness along with some more, but for full 5 star out of 5-ness, the Blu-ray with your widescreen TV is really the way to go for this bundle.

And finally, for the uber-fan, the Collector’s Set gives you all of the DVD’s, but also the soundtrack, a 100 page scrapbook, a reproduction of the 1965 Souvenir program, and a letter of authenticity so you can bag to your “The Sound of Music” friends.

Look, in any case, if you have ever found yourself singing “The hills are alive, with the sound of music,” even in jest, this 45th Anniversary edition finally does a special release right by giving you tons of extras that you might actually watch, but most importantly, giving you a great looking version of the movie that yes, instead of renting, if you are a fan, you should really buy it.

I know I sound like a commercial, but for a change I really like a Blu-ray set, liked all of the extras even if I’m not an uber-fan of the movie, and think this release is really worth it for movie history.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Here’s a bit from The Dude on the Right’s Blu-ray review of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”

…I guess I hate to put it this way, but it seems that “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is a dudette flick.  I say this simply by viewing it with my fiancé, whom, after we finished the movie, simply said “It was under two hours. It had a happy ending. I liked it.”  Yup, my fiancé has a pretty simple scale for her liking of movies, and yes, she does have to actually like the movie, but as the credits started to roll, and I looked at her and said “Ehh,” she stated her case based on her ratings scale, I said “Really, you liked it?” and she replied “Yes I did.” Hmm?…

Read the full review here.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

MPAA Rated – PG-13
It’s 1:56 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainnent
Kiddie Movie: It’s better for the older kiddies.
Date Movie: My BFF liked it, so go ahead and snuggle.
Gratuitous Sex: The Princess wears some skimpy outfits is about it.
Gratuitous Violence: There’s a lot of swordplay and people getting stabbed.
Action: Lots of chasing and running around.
Laughs: A chuckle here and there.
Memorable Scene: Whenever the dagger gets used.
Memorable Quote: Nothing.
Directed By: Mike Newell
Blu-ray Cool Things: The deleted scene is useless, but for film buffs the “CineExplore: The Sands of Time” is kind of like a visual commentary track.

I guess I hate to put it this way, but it seems that “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is a dudette flick. I say this simply by viewing it with my fiancé, whom, after we finished the movie, simply said “It was under two hours. It had a happy ending. I liked it.” Yup, my fiancé has a pretty simple scale for her liking of movies, and yes, she does have to actually like the movie, but as the credits started to roll, and I looked at her and said “Ehh,” she stated her case based on her ratings scale, I said “Really, you liked it?” and she replied “Yes I did.” Hmm?

So let’s start with the story… Jake Gyllenhaal is Dastan. He’s a little kid in the land of Persia and in a showing of courage, the King decides to adopt him, making him that adopted brother, and Prince, of Persia. He has two other brothers and they actually seem to get along in that brotherly way, and all is well with the kingdom. As the story goes the soldiers come across the land of Alamut, a holy land pretty much left alone in the kingdom, but through a “spy” it seems the Alamutians might be running weapons to the enemies of the Persians. Looking to strike while the iron is hot, with a bit of surprise, the boys, and the King’s brother, Nizam (Ben Kingsley), decide to attack, and in doing so Dastan ends up with this dagger. There is much rejoicing, it is deemed that Dastan should marry Tamina, the Princess/rulerish dudette of Alamut, but then the King dies from a poisoned cloak thing.

Well, Dastan is framed for the King’s death, he runs off with Tamina and decides he has to clear his name and also finds out that the dagger has this magic sand that can turn back time a bit. He learns of the true nature of the sand from Tamina, how it came to be, and the resulting problem should the sand fall into the wrong hands.

And so, for the remainder of the movie, Dastan and Tamina go through adventure after adventure in their quest to prove the good name of our hero, and secure the sand from the bad people.

Look, the movie is grandiose in scale, looks beautiful, but for me just seemed to keep getting itself too complicated in the treachery, the mysticism, and the 3-D-ness effects that were there for the movie in the theater, and maybe will be there for the 3-D TV’s in the future, but for even the Blu-ray scenes it was like wasted screen time when we get it, snakes fly at you in 3-D but don’t do it on my current flat screen.

Jake Gyllenhaal is good enough as Prince Dastan, Gemma Arterton is snippy and pretty as the Princess Tamina, and the film looks great, but I just kept sitting there on my couch waiting for the movie get to its ending, an ending that I thought went too far back in time, but then again, I guess it had to in order for the happy ending. I can see the kids liking it, I can see the dudes being okay with it, but for me it seemed about a 2 star movie that wanted to be a lot more than it ended up being For my BFF, though, she liked the story, it was under two hours, and had a happy ending and felt it was about a 3 1/2 star movie. I’ll average them together and round up to finally give the movie 3 stars out of 5. What do I know?

As far as the Blu-ray kinds of stuff, I still am trying to figure out why the Blu-ray version has a deleted scene that does nothing, really, but show some cut off heads on a platter. It does, though, for movie buffs, give an interesting, kind of “commentary” track, where if you watch the movie via the “Bonus Features” menu, there will be this dagger that shows up every now and then that if you use your remote, you can get a boat-load of “making of,” “how did they do that,” and tidbits about the movie. It’s kind of cool, at least the first couple of times, but it does get a little tedious waiting for the “dagger” to do it’s magic every time – I suggest using the index to see the things you really want to learn about quicker.

All in all a decent film to watch with your more adult children, or go ahead, snuggle with your honey on the couch while she checks out Jake’s abs, but for me the movie got lost in a lot of grandioseness that actually took away from the story.

When in Rome

I can usually like a romantic comedy, heck, I can even usually like a movie with "magic forces at work", but during my review of the Blu-ray release of "When in Rome," you’ll find out that event he cuteness of Kristen Bell, nor the acting ability of Danny De Vito, couldn’t help. There are a lot better romantic comedies out there, heck, even some you’ve probably already seen before, and maybe a tween might like this, but neither my BFF, nor myself, could find much to like about this one.

Pirate Radio

I really wanted to like "Pirate Radio" more than I did, so during my Blu-ray review of the movie I try to disect it. Okay, I really don’t, mostly I just give a synopsis of the movie and a brief idea of what to expect on the Blu-ray. Mostly I think I didn’t like it that much because the humor was more along the intellectual, dry kind, and when I was watching the movie I wasn’t in the "thinking mode." Check out the review anyway, it might give you some insight if you might like the movie.

The Princess and the Frog

Not having kids, and even though I sometimes act like I’m 12, I am still a dude, so for my Blu-ray review of "The Princess and the Frog" I do my best to try to relate to the movie as a little girl, but I just can’t. The singing and dancing is fun enough, it looks good in the old-school animation kind of way, and the story is nice, but I’m a dude, I’m not dreaming of kissing a frog to find my Prince, and even though the dopey alligator was kind of funny, this is really a Blu-ray for the little girls, or the big girls still thinking that maybe they should kiss that frog because the cad they are with sure isn’t a Prince.