Blu-ray Review: Shrek the Third

I remember reading Shrek when I was little. I loved that book. That book is also why I initially hated the first Shrek movie. Sure, there was an ogre and a princess ogre he falls in love with, but the movie wasn’t really anything like the book. After pretending it wasn’t supposed to be based on the children’s’ book by William Steig, I gave Shrek another chance and loved it. Then I loved Shrek 2. I was skeptical of Shrek the Third because let’s face it, rarely does it seem trilogies keep up pace with the first or even second movie.

For many, Shrek the Third doesn’t cut it. The story is extremely similar to that in the first movie. By this point, the pop-culture references don’t seem so clever and the potty humor hasn’t matured. Instead Shrek has a nightmare of hundreds of baby ogres throwing up all over the place — quite possibly the creepiest scene in any animated flick I’ve seen. But I actually like Shrek the Third. I liked how the characters from other fairy tales were doing their parts to save Far Far Away. And while I knew how it would play out, I still enjoyed the ride to get there.

Shrek the Third follows our beloved ogres Shrek and Fiona after the king of Far Far Away dies. Shrek hopes to return to his life of farting and mud back at his swamp home but the issue of successor to the throne isn’t exactly one that can be ignored. So Shrek sets off with his loyal sidekicks Donkey and Puss in Boots to find Artie, the only other heir besides Fiona. Meanwhile, Charming rallies the fellow fairytale bad guys to take over the kingdom. Saving Far Far Away from Charming might be the same basic idea as found in the first, the details are different enough to make it worth watching.

The voices behind our charismatic characters help make the movie. Mike Myers voices Shrek, Eddie Murphy is Donkey, Cameron Diaz is Princess Fiona, and Antonio Banderas is still the lovable Puss in Boots. However, Justin Timberlake joins as the voice behind Artie. All of the actors ham it up to make the animated characters memorable.

But what really makes the flick a success is the animation team. I truly think Shrek the Third is by far the most impressive visually of the trio of Shrekiliciousness. It really stands out on Blu-ray too. The animation pops to look as if it isn’t just an animated movie but perhaps something more. You can see the details in the hair on the characters or fibers of fabric on their clothes. It starts off strong with Charming’s hair billowing in the wind so clearly. The transfer is in 1080p so the pop in colors and sharpness is visible throughout the film. The high definition almost distracts from the movie because the animation stands out so beautifully. However, there is a difference in the Blu-ray release and that of the earlier HD-DVD version — an issue of depth of field. There is more detail in the background elements instead of blurring them slightly to differentiate the foreground and background. This isn't just an issue with Shrek the Third but it seems to be common with Blu-ray releases. So while it is beautifully detailed, it is a bit odd.

The audio is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 showing crisp dialogue throughout with the ambient sounds adding depth but never overpowering or distracting the audience from what is going on. Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also available in Dolby Digital 5.1.

There are tons of extras on the Blu-ray release, many of which were on the HD-DVD release but some are improved upon or even new. The coolest feature, if you ask me, is the Picture-in-Picture feature called “The Animators’ Corner” with interactive storyboards of deleted scenes pitches. There’s a pop up video track called “Shrek’s Trivia Track” about production info, and “The World of Shrek” with biographical info on the actors and movie. There are also your typical behind the scenes and outtakes features in “Lost Scenes,” “Big Green Goofs,” “The Tech of Shrek,” and several more.

I think Shrek the Third is definitely worth watching. But if you already purchased it when it was released on HD-DVD you can skip this Blu-ray release, as it is pretty much the same.

DVD Review: Another Cinderella Story

A Cinderella Story was cute. I like the cheesy family flicks that would be found on the likes of Disney or ABC Family. But what I don’t want is a ton of rip-offs of the same modern translation of yet another story. Each new movie is worse than the one before it. And a lot has to be said for originality, unfortunately Another Cinderella Story lacks that. The Cinderella-esque story has been done before. The dancing story has been done before. And both had much better versions than this. It’s a good thing I don’t have testicles because I promise they would have castrated themselves and run away after watching this movie.

Another Cinderella Story is the tale of Mary, our modern-day Cinderella. She lives with the fading popstar diva Dominique and her two step-sisters. Mary dreams of dancing and hopes to go to a dancing school. Then we have current pop-heartthrob Joey Parker who has come home to go back to school. Throw in a masked ball (because so many high schools have those), replace a missing slipper with a missing mp3 player, and you have this take on the classic tale.

Just what did this DVD get right? Well, it has an insert to get your digital copy of the movie for your computer. So if for some reason you need to watch a movie on your computer or portable device and don’t want to pay for a better movie, you can. The movie also looks fine, so at least it doesn’t look like something your little sister recorded on a digital camera. No really, it looks like your typical DVD these days — not as finely detailed and fluid as a blu-ray, but we weren’t expecting that. The kids in the movie are cute, I have no idea who any of them are (other than Jane Lynch of course) but they did a decent job. I guess I’m not the hip Highschool Musical type. None of the dancing blew me away, but I didn’t laugh the way I do during So You Think You Can Dance auditions either. Apparently the boy actually sings pop music, but the music was just generic pop Backstreet Boys could have done ten years ago that didn’t have the muster to become a hit single. But again, I didn’t laugh the way I do during American Idol auditions.

What did the movie get wrong? Well, the age difference in the leads apparently got some remarks. I agree that our Cinderella looks young, but honestly he does too. As far as chemistry between them, I don’t think we ever get many scenes with them other than when they are dancing or singing - and anyone can do that well together if given enough training and practice. I also think Jane Lynch’s character fell flat. She was underused so her bits missed the target and instead of being funny were simply annoying.

There are a handful of special features on the DVD. It has music videos and sing-a-longs, though none of them were compelling. There are several behind-the-scenes looks - at Mary, Joey, and the fashion. There is also a look at the dancing in the movie. As seems to be the norm these days, Another Cinderella Story is double-sided so you can watch in either widescreen or full-screen, though I am unsure of why anyone would opt to watch something in full-screen.

I’d only recommend Another Cinderella Story to those with kids who eat up all movies like this and to those who haven’t seen A Cinderella Story or any of the dancing movies that actually made it to the theaters.

Blu-Ray Review: The Love Guru

The Love Guru can very easily be called a really dumb movie. But unlike most dumb comedies these days, it actually made me laugh. Perhaps it is because a lot of Mike Myers’ golden lines are ad-libbed, but the humor in The Love Guru isn’t as predictable so the surprise factor goes a long way. And while I won’t say I think everyone needs to rush out to buy the movie, I do think it is worth renting at the very least.

The Love Guru is an "East meets West" comedy starring Myers, Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, and Romany Malco. Not counting his voice-over work, Mike Myers makes his return to the screen after a five-year absence as the Guru Pitka, who is trying to beat Deepak Chopra as the world’s best self-help guru. Pitka and his team decide that helping a hockey player fix his marriage and win the Stanley Cup will be their key to success. And it is that tale that The Love Guru follows.

Pitka is a popular relationship guru with some popular followers — Jessica Simpson, Val Kilmer, and Mariska Hargitay make cameos. His teachings don’t really follow any religion and even his greeting is made up, hence Mariska Hargitay’s appearance. Some of Pitka’s antics are the same potty humor we come to expect from Mike Myers, like the extended diarrhea noises in the bar or game of stink mop where they fight with mops dipped in urine. Of course, what would a movie about a love guru be without the guru’s own romance?

Guru Pitka is like a fake philosophy-touting Austin Powers, with similar quirks and gags as found in the Austin Powers flicks. But those work for Myers so while sex gags, catch phrases, and silly costumes aren’t new to the big screen, they still garner giggles from the audience. The plot is somewhat petty and perhaps considered racist — he’s a white dude speaking with a bad Indian accent — but if not taken seriously, this movie is still 86 minutes of entertainment. I don’t think it has hit the mark of Austin Powers, so it may not be a home run of a return to the big screen, but as I said earlier, it is a dumb movie.

Guru is on DVD and Blu-ray now. I know that Blu-ray is more expensive, but if you haven’t watched it yet you really should. Even if you aren’t someone who can spot the difference between something shot on film versus video, you will definitely notice the difference in quality seen on Blu-ray. The picture is clearer and more detailed, but at the same time smoother. The difference is similar to that of a cheap digital camera's photograph as compared to a high-quality professional photograph. That's just part of the beauty seen in the 1080p high definition transfer. And if you have surround sound set up, you're in for a treat because Guru is in Dolby Digital TrueHD — which uses surround channels to help get a crisp sound to complement the visual beauty of Blu-ray.

There are several special features on the DVD set. There are some of the typical features: deleted scenes, outtakes, and a couple of behind-the-scenes looks at how they made The Love Guru. They look at the thoughts behind Myers’ character, how they trained the actors in the hockey rink, and some of the puppetry in the movie. However, unlike many other movies out there, all the special features are also presented in high definition. I think the neatest feature is the second disc in the set, though. It is a digital copy (it’s protected, folks!) so you can easily put the movie you purchase on your computer, iPod, or other portable device so you can watch it whenever or wherever you want. I know I like the ease of putting a movie I’ve spent money to buy on my iPod instead of having to also buy it on iTunes to be able to watch it at the gym or on a plane.

TV Review: The Big Bang Theory The Complete First Season

I have a thing for dorks. That dictated my desire, no my need, to watch The Big Bang Theory. I quickly fell in love with Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki). The two are roommates and physicists; they know everything about integrals and black holes but have little to no knowledge of women. That is plenty apparent when the blonde bombshell Penny moves into the apartment across the hall and Leonard makes a bumbling idiot of himself and Sheldon is more interested in watching Battlestar and mentions that they tried masturbating for money.

Joined by Raj and Wolowitz, they make a 30-minute sitcom that easily found its way on my Must-See list. Everyone quickly learns to head for the hills when Sheldon gets sick because he’s easily the neediest person alive. Tempers flare when Sheldon and Leonard present a paper at a symposium, but luckily Wolowitz videotapes the entire thing so the dork fight can be viewed over and over on YouTube. Leonard has a semblance of social skills but Sheldon prides himself on one thing – being the smartest person around and even that gets fractured when a child prodigy tours the university where our favorite geeks work.

As far as special features go, The Big Bang Theory is short on special features, but honestly who watches those all that much? The only feature is a behind the scenes look at the creation of the show called “Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory.” However, the show’s creators do have some help of actual physicists to help the jargon and information be accurate to allow Big Bang to be a genuinely smart show. Now no one can say intelligence isn’t entertaining. Plus, it is sort of nice to see the nerd cast as the hero instead of a sidekick who gets a few chuckles. Maybe it can prove that the nice guy really does get the girl, even if the plot of a beauty among beasts isn’t something new.

Luckily, the ensemble cast works well together with each individual bringing something to the table – from comical timing to a simply refreshing presence. And let’s face it; the casting is what makes the show a hit. The wrong group of actors could have seen Big Bang fall flat very quickly. I enjoy the show a great deal, but there isn’t much a show can accomplish in a 30-minute time slot that could be considered revolutionary. But in a world of hour-long dramas, it’s good to have a witty sitcom that hits the spot.

DVD Review: Gossip Girl The Complete First Season

Canceling Veronica Mars left a void in my CW viewing. Fortunately, Kristen Bell is involved in a new teen drama — even if only as the never-seen, snarky narrator. Gossip Girl may not be about a sarcastic teen detective, but the private-school offerings do serve up some guilty pleasure fodder. Throw in the fact I went to prep school and the show was almost guaranteed to be a hit -- at least for me.

Gossip Girl is the deliciously racy new CW offering of The O.C.’s teen-soap experts. This batch of privileged teens attend an Upper East Side prep school and take the life of luxury to an extreme the likes of Marissa and Summer couldn’t even imagine in Newport Beach. Nay, their lavish lifestyles aren’t contained in ocean-side mansions. The Waldorfs, van der Woodsens, and Archibalds are used to expensive Manhattan hotel penthouses, champagne, and randier sex lives than the stars of Debbie Does Dallas. That’s merely the tip of the iceberg of gossip for which these teens live or guilty pleasures thrive. Strangely, these underage elitists never seem to have a problem drinking in NYC’s hottest bars. Stranger still is lack of smoking cigarettes, apparently smoking is worse than casual sex under the influence of who knows what or drug overdoses.

Cecily von Ziegesar’s young adult series of a mystery blogger known only as Gossip Girl serves as the inspiration for the teen drama where an instant can change friends into enemies and enemies into your only ally. The juicy gossip of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and her BFF Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) are enough to get Gossip Girl on monitoring groups like the Parents Television Council. The juicy details that kick off the series are enough to make some parents wish they could lock up their children to keep them pure as Serena returns from an abrupt disappearance to boarding school a year earlier. Why did she leave? Because she had drunken sex with her best friend’s boyfriend of course. But don’t worry because Blair returns the favor to her boyfriend by sleeping with his best friend -- her first time in a limo no less.

But nevermind the naughtiness the parents don’t like, the overboard and extreme nature of Gossip Girl is everything we viewers want in our guilty pleasures. Even more desirable is the first season being out on DVD. The DVD set includes typical special features like unaired scenes (at least two episodes on each disc have them), gag reels, music videos and behind-the-scenes looks. Also included is a downloadable audiobook of one of the popular novels read by Christina Ricci. Warner Brothers are also taking a green-approach by packaging the five discs into the space of one.

Even though the storylines are over-the-top, these young actors bring their characters to life. Dan Humphrey (John Tucker Must Die’s Penn Badgley) and Serena van der Woodsen give all TV couples a lesson in what chemistry looks like. His younger sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen) gives a chilling performance as the girl who goes to almost no ends to make it into the popular crowd. And while Serena’s charisma makes her beauty non-intimidating, Blair is the one who really steals the show. It’s pretty powerful when someone can do all in her power to oust her best friend from the in-crowd and still illicit sympathy from the audience. Naturally everyone on the screen is gorgeous and represents the people we sometimes dream about becoming.

If you want a glimpse into the life you wish you had, I’d recommend you buy the complete first season of Gossip Girl. XO XO.

DVD Review: My Sassy Girl

When I heard they were turning the Korean romantic comedy My Sassy Girl into an American movie, I had mixed feelings. First, I was excited because I highly enjoyed the Korean original. But I was also skeptical because it seems many Asian movies translated into an American version simply aren’t as good. Either way, I knew just had to see My Sassy Girl.

Bring It On’s Jesse Bradford and The Girl Next Door’s Elisha Cuthbert are Charlie Bello and Jordan Roark. Yann Samuell directs in what appears to be his American directorial debut. Victor Levin took on the task of crafting an English screenplay based on the original film’s screenplay by Jae-young Kwak. The story is based true stories Ho-sik Kim posted online before compiling the relationship woes into a novel.

My Sassy Girl is the tale of the first and last time Charlie Bello falls in love. From their initial meeting, trouble is the name of the game. Imagine an amorphous mass of dating disasters and you get an idea of the relationship between the young couple. Some mysterious force with the strength of gravity between two planets must be at play between Charlie and Jordan as the relationship truly makes no sense on the surface. Everything seems pitted against the two of them. Things suddenly come to a halt when the two write letters confessing their love for each other. Agreeing to meet a year later to read the love letters together, Charlie and Jordan go their separate ways.

I won’t ruin the end of the movie for you – whether they end up together or miss each other reading the letters by a day. You will just have to rent the movie to see how the story ends. There is, however, a strong message behind the romantic woes — a tale of destiny. We can’t sit and wait for destiny to happen, but we must build the bridges ourselves.

The film is certainly similar to its Korean counterpart. The storyline is the same, with a few details changed to make sense in a different culture. The intro matches that of the original movie, but in a less creepy sort of way. Whereas the Korean movie has an animated intro with weird babies suckling at their mothers’ breasts, the American movie shows a montage of events with bright, yet simple sets to illustrate Charlie’s life to this point.

It seems the only thing that doesn’t fully translate into the new movie is the humor. My Sassy Girl is touted as a romantic comedy, and the Korean version very much is. The mishaps are construed in a way to be charming. However, they lose some of the funny appeal in the new film. Not that the movie is a complete bore, it just seems somehow more tragic.

My Sassy Girl has a direct-to-DVD release in late August 2008. While I wouldn’t tell anyone to rush out to rent it, the movie is definitely worth picking up on a rainy day.

Movie Review: The Great Debaters

I love the Disney-esque stories of the underdog beating all odds to achieve something everyone said they couldn’t do. I like to feel good. Sure, we know they’ll come out on top before we even see the movie, but the heartwarming hope is still nice to watch. I don’t care for the ones that are overly sentimental and gag inducing, but when the movie is well done it just hits the spot. The Great Debaters is that sort of film.

Denzel Washington, as both the director and a star of the movie, manages the perfect balance between feel-good and real so The Great Debaters isn’t just syrupy sweetness. Yes, we know they just don’t make movies inspired by true stories that don’t somehow have a happy ending. Heck, this story was so touching as to make Oprah Winfrey want her Harpo Films company to produce it.

The Great Debaters is about the 1935 debate team from all-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. There are four students on the team: the 14-year-old prodigy James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), handsome troublemaker Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), the first female on the team Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett), and Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams). The film follows their journey from tryouts until the climatic face-off with Harvard University. Okay, so the movie takes some liberties as the team actually went up against the University of Southern California, but the idea is the same. Naturally there are some side-plots to help keep some tension in the story that might otherwise be too formulaic and safe. And since they live in the Jim Crow South, you can imagine some of the issues dealt with in the movie.

With seasoned greats like Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker (no relation to the young Denzel Whitaker), the acting starts off on a strong foot. Throw in the four talented young actors and The Great Debaters avoids one-note roles, for the most part. But the characters with little-to-no depth also have entertaining performances even if they do rely heavily on stereotypes.

The production design is also excellent and does a lot to capture the feel of 1930’s Texas. The sets, costumes, and props work together well, so well in fact they really are merely the background instead of a distraction as seems to be a common shortfall for contemporary movies. And while the film does play it safe a lot of the time, there are some moments where lines of comfort are crossed to show what life for these young students might have been like.

In fact, I think the only thing that didn’t work for The Great Debaters is some of the subplots that add little to nothing to the story – the romance for example. That and the Wiley team always debate for the side of the arguments they already agree with. It would have been interesting to see them debate against integration or something that would have proven to be difficult for the kids. The Great Debaters does follow the profitable and formulaic sports plot, simply substituting debating and arguments for sports and balls. But it does make for a movie the entire family can enjoy with some educational aspects thrown in the mix.

As a side-note, I can’t help but notice Denzel Whitaker’s name as being a hybrid of the two, more established actors in the film. Luckily for him, I don’t think it will be difficult for him, or any of the young actors really, to own up to the name.