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Blu-ray Capsule Reviews: November 2009
The Towering Inferno - Towering Inferno, The
From the watery depths to the fiery sky, Irwin Allen’s follow up to The Poseidon Adventure was an ambitious attempt to take the disaster movie genre to new heights (pun intended). The formula was simple: cast a long list of film stars as guests at a lavish party to celebrate the launch of the world’s tallest building: The Glass Tower, then establish that the builder/owner of the tower has built the thing on the cheap, so the wiring in the whole building has a nasty tendency to overheat. Before long a small fire breaks out in a utility room that soon becomes an epic, raging inferno and it’s up to two men to try and limit the death toll: Paul Newman’s genius architect who is wrestling with guilt over not ensuring his designs were being built to spec, and Steve McQueen’s heroic fire chief who is fighting a losing battle on multiple fronts.
An epic ode to Hollywood excess and showmanship, The Towering Inferno is probably not held to the same high regard as Poseidon, but it has made its own imprint on Hollywood history. The focus is clearly on star power and large scale set pieces as Allen casts a massive list of film legends both young and old, with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman headlining at the peak of their careers and the top of their game. Newman plays the internally conflicted but resourceful hero who seeks to put right his own neglect, while McQueen is the blue collar firefighter who stoically tries to control an impossibly bad situation, both stars play off each other brilliantly and McQueen’s attempts at one-upmanship with Newman has become the stuff of Hollywood legend. It certainly paid off, McQueen completely captures the no-nonsense technical confidence of a worker with years of training behind him and the format of having two heroes on two different fronts helps break the lengthy film down quite nicely.
The Towering Inferno is not all about star power though, the amount of fire used in the action set pieces set a new standard for dangerous and convincing disaster sequences in film, and if anything the practical effects make the film even more gripping and believable in this post-911 era of CGI-excess. You can almost feel the heat and smoke and soot seeping its way through the screen, which drags you deeper into the procedural sequences where the firemen work with the party guests to create new ways to evacuate the building.
The Disc: The first thing that strikes you about this 2.35:1 1080p VC-1 transfer is how narrow the focus is in the first 30-40minutes, Allen’s propensity to always get the actor’s faces in focus means that much of the periphery can be an out-of-focus blur - and the softness is compounded by quite a lot of optical shots. This isn’t a problem at all, but it may temper people’s opinion of this Blu-ray should they only compare the opening act to their SE DVDs. Once the action gets to the Promenade Room party the focus opens up a bit and the transfer really begins to shine, exhibiting an impressive amount of sharpness and fine detail for a 35year old film, with no egregious signs of noise reduction. There are signs of sharpening in play in the form of some thick edge enhancements creeping into a few shots. The reproduction of film grain also impresses - obviously optical shots exhibit a heavier, fuzzy layer of grain; but most of the film really only exhibits a very light layer that you’ll barely notice. It occasionally becomes heavier in certain scenes, but never imposingly so.
Colour reproduction is quite striking at times, doing wonders for the predominantly yellow/orange/brown schemes of the film – reds and blues are also very rich. Skintones appear a little flush at times but they always seem pretty much accurate for the look of this film. Black levels are pretty deep, there are one or two shots where they falter briefly but it’s possible these moments are inherent to the print. Contrast is a little high, brightness levels seem more naturalistic and shadow detail is a little low in some shots. The VC-1 encode is very strong and has a relatively low average video bitrate of 19.57Mbps, so there is a little compression noise in the image but not enough for me to notice it during regular viewing.
Sadly the only lossless sound option is a 5.1 English DTS-HD MA track, but the audio certainly seems pretty faithful and doesn’t take any liberties with the directionality or sound design of the film; all the original elements are up there across the front sound field with rears only being used for faint ambience. The quality of the sound is understandably rough around the edges, the action sequences sound pretty forceful, but bass levels are noticeably hollow. Dialogue is pretty clear but the audio does tear in the louder moments. For the most part the sound is impressively cleaned up, but quite a bit of audible hiss still remains. There are no problems with immersion though, and I’m not sure how much better the film can sound given its age, so my score reflects that. An English DD4.0 track is also included and it sounds very close to the lossless track. There are also a handful of foreign 2.0 dubs which all sound like they were recorded yesterday, and therefore are quite jarring.
There’s a myriad of short featurettes on this disc, which is great if you’re the kind of person who likes to just dip their toes in one or two brief extras at any one time, but it’s a nightmare for people hungry for a comprehensive information resource. Had these featurettes been edited together into a feature length making of then my overall impression of the footage present in the extra features would no doubt be much higher. Saying that, pretty much all the featurettes are informative and a decent enough watch in their own right, you just end up wishing they could have gone into more depth. Also present on the disc are 33 Deleted/Extended Scenes taking up a total of 44minutes, a daunting proposition for even the most ardent fans of extra footage. By far the best Extra Feature is the audio commentary by film historian F.X. Feeney, which manages to be both highly informative and entertaining.
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Heat - Heat
A labour of love for Mann that took over a decade and a TV-film incarnation to finally make it to the big screen, Heat would ultimately become overshadowed by the decision to cast Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the leading roles. Both actors starred in The Godfather: Part II, but this was the first time they would go head-to-head on camera together in the same scene. Film fans went into a frenzy, the hype machine kicked into overdrive, and Heat was released to an overwhelmingly positive fan reception and cries that not only was this the definitive Michael Mann film, it was perhaps the greatest cops & robbers film of all time.
De Niro and Pacino play Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna: Two men on opposite sides of the law who are the very best at what they do. Hanna is a crack lieutenant in Robbery/Homicide whose obsession with bringing down bad guys has destroyed three marriages and strained his current one to breaking point. McCauley is an ultra-professional thief who leads a small but loyal and highly trained crew through all manner of different heists, living by a simple coda: “Don't keep anything in your life you're not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” McCauleys crew appear on Hanna’s radar when an armoured vehicle robbery leaves behind a trail of dead bodies, and it’s not long before McCauley feels that heat around the corner, but with a multi-million dollar bank job in the planning and a burgeoning relationship to an unassuming graphic designer playing on his heart, Neil is forced to reconsider his own disciplines and continue on a path that will lead to a direct confrontation with Hanna’s team.
Is Heat a perfect film? There’s a whole legion of film fans that would tell you it is, but I feel that the parallel storylines of the criminals leading up the main heist can be more than a little “soapy” and perhaps could have been excised to streamline the film down - but in terms of style and mood the film is a modern masterpiece. The Los Angeles locations are vast in scope and Dante Spinotti gets absolutely the best out of them, creating a very moody visual personality; while Elliot Goldenthal’s score evokes the memory of Manhunter but with a cooler 90s feel that hasn’t dated at all. Most importantly the performances of Pacino and De Niro completely live up to the epic hype and both actors extract a level of depth from the roles that isn’t really there in the script. Pacino is at is most mesmerizingly unpredictable, while De Niro is completely controlled and ice cool. Heat also has one of the most exciting and realistic shootouts committed to celluloid when McCauley’s crew have to fight their way to freedom after their bank heist goes wrong, a stunning reminder that Mann is one of the best action directors in the business when he’s not focussing on the themes of isolation and loneliness that dominate his ouvre.
The Disc: Apparently Heat come to Blu-ray with new content changes supervised by director Michael Mann, and I’ve got to admit that I’m simply not familiar enough with the film to easily spot what those changes are, because from what I’ve read they aren’t particularly significant: just small changes to dialogue here or a different shot there. Apparently the runtime is seven seconds longer, so unless you’re a diehard fan who has watched the film many times you’re probably not going to spot the changes either.
Heat never really received a transfer on DVD that set the fans alight and I suspect that the Blu-ray will also divide opinions heavily as Warner have brought Heat to the HD format with a satisfyingly naturalistic transfer that looks notably less sharp than your typical contemporary Blu-ray release. That’s not to say that Heat doesn’t look sharp, it does, it’s just that you’re not going to get a massive amount of fine detail that allows you to see all the pores in the actors faces during close ups. You’re also going to see mid and distance shots that are downright blurry, which seems to be down to the lenses used or the print itself. Warner have kept the image as close to their print as possible, grain is kept to a light layer with a very appealing texture that gets fuzzier in darker scenes and minute flecks/scratches/pops are pretty much omnipresent, which suggests no noise reduction is in play. Edge Enhancement is almost a non-presence throughout the film, but there is some faint ringing here and there, although one scene around 24minutes in when Hanna is arguing with Justine over his workaholic nature that features some heavy ringing.
Colours also look very naturalistic, Heat has a steely colour scheme that yields very neutral, slightly muted colours and very natural skin tones, both of which are more accurately reproduced here than in any previous home video release. Mann has a preference for low lighting so brightness and contrast generally look a little low and shadow detail slightly below the norm, but black levels are excellent – there’s one scene where the brightness level appears to jump up in an instance which feels like a print/shooting quirk rather than a failing of the Blu-ray transfer itself. The VC-1 compression was not an issue in any way during regular playback, but the encoding could be better as a more detailed perusal exhibited some noticeable blocking and banding. Overall, I think Warner have done an excellent job and delivered a transfer that should satisfy film purists.
The English DolbyTrueHD 5.1 track is impressive and only reveals the true age of the film with a couple of subtle niggles. Mann recorded the film au naturalé with no soundstages and seems to have produced a naturalistic sound where dialogue can be very quiet and often feels a touch too low in the mix. The audio is restrained, caressing the viewer rather than confronting them, but when the action sequences kick in and that live gunfire echoes through the streets of L.A the sound becomes much more aggressive and bass much more punchy. The bank heist gunfight in particular sounds awesome and will really give your sound system a work out. Directionality is excellent, the sound field is wide and very expressive and - low dialogue aside - the dynamics are also strong. The niggles? Bass can be a little hollow at times, giving the audio a slightly harsh feel, but by far the worst offender is audio tear, which occurs quite a lot whenever anyone raises their voice or a particularly loud event occurs. None of these niggles distract or detract from the film itself, they are simply reminders that Heat is almost 15years old now.
Warner have put together a pretty decent selection of Extra Features, Mann provides a very informative commentary that thoroughly dissects the film’s characters and acting processes of the main stars. The other major extra is a one-hour Making Of that is split up into three chapters that discusses most aspects of the film’s shoot, but also talks about former Chicago cop Chuck Adamson and his pursuit of bank robber Neil McCauley that formed the basis of Heat. 11 short deleted scenes, a featurette on the iconic cafe meet between Hanna and McCauley, and a retrospective look at the fantastic locations used in the film finish up the extra features.
Please help support The Digital Fix by purchasing this title or any others through our affiliate links...
An epic ode to Hollywood excess and showmanship, The Towering Inferno is probably not held to the same high regard as Poseidon, but it has made its own imprint on Hollywood history. The focus is clearly on star power and large scale set pieces as Allen casts a massive list of film legends both young and old, with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman headlining at the peak of their careers and the top of their game. Newman plays the internally conflicted but resourceful hero who seeks to put right his own neglect, while McQueen is the blue collar firefighter who stoically tries to control an impossibly bad situation, both stars play off each other brilliantly and McQueen’s attempts at one-upmanship with Newman has become the stuff of Hollywood legend. It certainly paid off, McQueen completely captures the no-nonsense technical confidence of a worker with years of training behind him and the format of having two heroes on two different fronts helps break the lengthy film down quite nicely.
The Towering Inferno is not all about star power though, the amount of fire used in the action set pieces set a new standard for dangerous and convincing disaster sequences in film, and if anything the practical effects make the film even more gripping and believable in this post-911 era of CGI-excess. You can almost feel the heat and smoke and soot seeping its way through the screen, which drags you deeper into the procedural sequences where the firemen work with the party guests to create new ways to evacuate the building.
The Disc: The first thing that strikes you about this 2.35:1 1080p VC-1 transfer is how narrow the focus is in the first 30-40minutes, Allen’s propensity to always get the actor’s faces in focus means that much of the periphery can be an out-of-focus blur - and the softness is compounded by quite a lot of optical shots. This isn’t a problem at all, but it may temper people’s opinion of this Blu-ray should they only compare the opening act to their SE DVDs. Once the action gets to the Promenade Room party the focus opens up a bit and the transfer really begins to shine, exhibiting an impressive amount of sharpness and fine detail for a 35year old film, with no egregious signs of noise reduction. There are signs of sharpening in play in the form of some thick edge enhancements creeping into a few shots. The reproduction of film grain also impresses - obviously optical shots exhibit a heavier, fuzzy layer of grain; but most of the film really only exhibits a very light layer that you’ll barely notice. It occasionally becomes heavier in certain scenes, but never imposingly so.
Colour reproduction is quite striking at times, doing wonders for the predominantly yellow/orange/brown schemes of the film – reds and blues are also very rich. Skintones appear a little flush at times but they always seem pretty much accurate for the look of this film. Black levels are pretty deep, there are one or two shots where they falter briefly but it’s possible these moments are inherent to the print. Contrast is a little high, brightness levels seem more naturalistic and shadow detail is a little low in some shots. The VC-1 encode is very strong and has a relatively low average video bitrate of 19.57Mbps, so there is a little compression noise in the image but not enough for me to notice it during regular viewing.
Sadly the only lossless sound option is a 5.1 English DTS-HD MA track, but the audio certainly seems pretty faithful and doesn’t take any liberties with the directionality or sound design of the film; all the original elements are up there across the front sound field with rears only being used for faint ambience. The quality of the sound is understandably rough around the edges, the action sequences sound pretty forceful, but bass levels are noticeably hollow. Dialogue is pretty clear but the audio does tear in the louder moments. For the most part the sound is impressively cleaned up, but quite a bit of audible hiss still remains. There are no problems with immersion though, and I’m not sure how much better the film can sound given its age, so my score reflects that. An English DD4.0 track is also included and it sounds very close to the lossless track. There are also a handful of foreign 2.0 dubs which all sound like they were recorded yesterday, and therefore are quite jarring.
There’s a myriad of short featurettes on this disc, which is great if you’re the kind of person who likes to just dip their toes in one or two brief extras at any one time, but it’s a nightmare for people hungry for a comprehensive information resource. Had these featurettes been edited together into a feature length making of then my overall impression of the footage present in the extra features would no doubt be much higher. Saying that, pretty much all the featurettes are informative and a decent enough watch in their own right, you just end up wishing they could have gone into more depth. Also present on the disc are 33 Deleted/Extended Scenes taking up a total of 44minutes, a daunting proposition for even the most ardent fans of extra footage. By far the best Extra Feature is the audio commentary by film historian F.X. Feeney, which manages to be both highly informative and entertaining.
| Film: 8/10 Runtime: 164mins Distributor: Warner Home Video Release Date: 16th November 2009 Disc Country: United Kingdom Region: ALL Video: 8/10 2.35:1, VC-1, 1080P Audio: 7/10 English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD4.0, French DD2.0, German DD2.0, Italian DD2.0, Spanish DD2.0 Subtitles: English*, French*, German*, Italian*, Spanish*, Dutch*, Castilian*, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish * Available on Extra Features | Extras: 6/10 Commentary by Film Historian F.X. Feeney Inside the Tower: We Remember (08m:16s) Innovating the Tower: The SPFX of an Inferno (06m:55s) The Art of Towering (05m:18s) Irwin Allen: The Great Producer (06m:26s) Directing the Inferno (04m:28s) Putting out the Fire (04m:58s) Running on Fire (05m:52s) Still the World’s Tallest Building (08m:23s) The Heart of Disaster: Stirling Silliphant (09m:16s) Storyboard-to-Film Comparisons (13m:06s) NATO Presentation Reel (11m:07s) Original 1974 Featurette #1 (08m:15s) Original 1974 Featurette #2 (07m:20s) Irwin Allen 1977 Interview (12m:15s) Deleted & Extended Scenes (44m:47s) Teaser & Theatrical Trailers (04m:04s) No user comments, why not be the first? |
 £6.95 |  £7.99 |  £8.97 |  £8.99 |
Posted on 14 November 2009 by Matt Shingleton
Heat - Heat
De Niro and Pacino play Neil McCauley and Vincent Hanna: Two men on opposite sides of the law who are the very best at what they do. Hanna is a crack lieutenant in Robbery/Homicide whose obsession with bringing down bad guys has destroyed three marriages and strained his current one to breaking point. McCauley is an ultra-professional thief who leads a small but loyal and highly trained crew through all manner of different heists, living by a simple coda: “Don't keep anything in your life you're not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” McCauleys crew appear on Hanna’s radar when an armoured vehicle robbery leaves behind a trail of dead bodies, and it’s not long before McCauley feels that heat around the corner, but with a multi-million dollar bank job in the planning and a burgeoning relationship to an unassuming graphic designer playing on his heart, Neil is forced to reconsider his own disciplines and continue on a path that will lead to a direct confrontation with Hanna’s team.
Is Heat a perfect film? There’s a whole legion of film fans that would tell you it is, but I feel that the parallel storylines of the criminals leading up the main heist can be more than a little “soapy” and perhaps could have been excised to streamline the film down - but in terms of style and mood the film is a modern masterpiece. The Los Angeles locations are vast in scope and Dante Spinotti gets absolutely the best out of them, creating a very moody visual personality; while Elliot Goldenthal’s score evokes the memory of Manhunter but with a cooler 90s feel that hasn’t dated at all. Most importantly the performances of Pacino and De Niro completely live up to the epic hype and both actors extract a level of depth from the roles that isn’t really there in the script. Pacino is at is most mesmerizingly unpredictable, while De Niro is completely controlled and ice cool. Heat also has one of the most exciting and realistic shootouts committed to celluloid when McCauley’s crew have to fight their way to freedom after their bank heist goes wrong, a stunning reminder that Mann is one of the best action directors in the business when he’s not focussing on the themes of isolation and loneliness that dominate his ouvre.
The Disc: Apparently Heat come to Blu-ray with new content changes supervised by director Michael Mann, and I’ve got to admit that I’m simply not familiar enough with the film to easily spot what those changes are, because from what I’ve read they aren’t particularly significant: just small changes to dialogue here or a different shot there. Apparently the runtime is seven seconds longer, so unless you’re a diehard fan who has watched the film many times you’re probably not going to spot the changes either.
Heat never really received a transfer on DVD that set the fans alight and I suspect that the Blu-ray will also divide opinions heavily as Warner have brought Heat to the HD format with a satisfyingly naturalistic transfer that looks notably less sharp than your typical contemporary Blu-ray release. That’s not to say that Heat doesn’t look sharp, it does, it’s just that you’re not going to get a massive amount of fine detail that allows you to see all the pores in the actors faces during close ups. You’re also going to see mid and distance shots that are downright blurry, which seems to be down to the lenses used or the print itself. Warner have kept the image as close to their print as possible, grain is kept to a light layer with a very appealing texture that gets fuzzier in darker scenes and minute flecks/scratches/pops are pretty much omnipresent, which suggests no noise reduction is in play. Edge Enhancement is almost a non-presence throughout the film, but there is some faint ringing here and there, although one scene around 24minutes in when Hanna is arguing with Justine over his workaholic nature that features some heavy ringing.
Colours also look very naturalistic, Heat has a steely colour scheme that yields very neutral, slightly muted colours and very natural skin tones, both of which are more accurately reproduced here than in any previous home video release. Mann has a preference for low lighting so brightness and contrast generally look a little low and shadow detail slightly below the norm, but black levels are excellent – there’s one scene where the brightness level appears to jump up in an instance which feels like a print/shooting quirk rather than a failing of the Blu-ray transfer itself. The VC-1 compression was not an issue in any way during regular playback, but the encoding could be better as a more detailed perusal exhibited some noticeable blocking and banding. Overall, I think Warner have done an excellent job and delivered a transfer that should satisfy film purists.
The English DolbyTrueHD 5.1 track is impressive and only reveals the true age of the film with a couple of subtle niggles. Mann recorded the film au naturalé with no soundstages and seems to have produced a naturalistic sound where dialogue can be very quiet and often feels a touch too low in the mix. The audio is restrained, caressing the viewer rather than confronting them, but when the action sequences kick in and that live gunfire echoes through the streets of L.A the sound becomes much more aggressive and bass much more punchy. The bank heist gunfight in particular sounds awesome and will really give your sound system a work out. Directionality is excellent, the sound field is wide and very expressive and - low dialogue aside - the dynamics are also strong. The niggles? Bass can be a little hollow at times, giving the audio a slightly harsh feel, but by far the worst offender is audio tear, which occurs quite a lot whenever anyone raises their voice or a particularly loud event occurs. None of these niggles distract or detract from the film itself, they are simply reminders that Heat is almost 15years old now.
Warner have put together a pretty decent selection of Extra Features, Mann provides a very informative commentary that thoroughly dissects the film’s characters and acting processes of the main stars. The other major extra is a one-hour Making Of that is split up into three chapters that discusses most aspects of the film’s shoot, but also talks about former Chicago cop Chuck Adamson and his pursuit of bank robber Neil McCauley that formed the basis of Heat. 11 short deleted scenes, a featurette on the iconic cafe meet between Hanna and McCauley, and a retrospective look at the fantastic locations used in the film finish up the extra features.
| Film: 9/10 Runtime: 170mins Distributor: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09th November 2009 Disc Country: United Kingdom Region: ALL Video: 8/10 2.40:1, VC-1, 1080P Audio: 8/10 English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, French DD5.1, German DD5.1, Spanish DD5.1, Portugese DD2.0 Subtitles: English*, French*, German*, Spanish*, Dutch*, Castilian*, Portugese*, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish * Available on Extra Features | Extras: 8/10 Commentary by Director Michael Mann The Making of Heat (59m:13s) Pacino and De Niro: The Conversation (09m:54s) Return to the Scene of the Crime (12m:02s) Deleted Scenes (09m:31s) Trailers (06m:44s) There are 4 comments. Have your say. |
£9.49 | £9.49 |  £9.99 |  £10.00 |
Posted on 09 November 2009 by Matt Shingleton