The sure-fire victor of the 2009 Academy Awards, Pixar’s Wall-E flies onto DVD this Tuesday, bringing with it one of the most ambitious, creative and visually stunning films ever made. Last year’s Oscar-winner Ratatouille was downright amazing for these same reasons (my roommate prefers the rat film), but

Wall-E managed to make a likable character and a smart, entertaining story with minimal dialogue. For a big budget film - a kid’s movie, no less - to feature almost no English is downright risky, but if there’s any studio that would take on such a task, it is Pixar.

As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of Wall-E; I doubt it will receive a Best Picture nomination as has been rumored, but we shall see. You can read my full Wall-E movie review here.

As for the three-disc DVD, it’s pretty good. The third disc is a digital copy of the film, so that doesn’t count, but the second disc is loaded with a good amount of interviews, making-of featurettes, deleted scenes and some family friendly features as well (the disc is split into Humans, for film fans, and Robots, for families).

I am currently watching The Pixar Story, an hour-and-a-half documentary that explores the creation of Pixar and computer animation in general. It’s quite interesting, as the lead animator began at Disney, was fired, and then moved to Lucasarts. From Star Wars to Young Sherlock Holmes (one of my favorites), computer animation begin to grow. Of course, money was an issue, and so Steve Jobs of Apple helped finance the spin-off company Pixar. That’s as far as I’ve gotten, but it’s pretty interesting.

Other features include:

• Deleted scenes
  There’s no real animation here, other than crudely drawn storyboards with music and audio added in for effect. I’m not a big fan of these, but as far as faux deleted scenes go, these are pretty good. It’s interesting to see that the ship’s computer was originally a stand alone robot, not something that is in fact connected to the ship itself.
• BnL Shorts
  This is a video designed for the ship’s captain that explains the brilliance of BnL, the reason for leaving Earth and the responsibilities the captain has for controlling the ship. His hardest task is that he has to clap his hands twice to get his morning coffee. This is pretty funny.
• Featurettes
  There are several behind-the-scenes featurettes that explore various aspects of the film. While each one is short (thankfully), these are pretty insightful as we get to see the thought processes put into the level of detail, the style of animation and so on and so forth. We get to see how Wall-E is inspired after bomb-detonating robots and many others, and, most interesting, the original plans for the film, which involved aliens (no humans) and eventually humans that had digressed into blobs. I’m glad they finally settled on overweight humans, however.
• Family-friendly features. I didn’t explore these too much, but there is one snippet that involves Wall-E being “attacked” by a variety of items including a magnet and vaccuum cleaner. It’s pretty funny, and I’m sure kids will have a blast wth it. There is also a feature where children can select from 30-40 robots seen in the movie and learn a bit more about them.

I also give Disney props for displaying the running time of each feature, so I knew how much time commitment I was putting in. All DVDs should do this.

The Wall-E DVD isn’t anything amazing, but insightful featurettes and a great movie make this a must-buy for all DVD fans.

The Ben Stiller-directed action-comedy Tropic Thunder arrives on DVD this week and is sure to be a big hit. The movie, which got off to a shockingly slow start in theaters, quickly developed into a sleeper hit, based on pretty good word of mouth and a great cast that includes Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise, in the longest and most inspired cameo in years. Still, studio executives had to be expecting more - but DVD sales should make up for some of that.

I have the two-disc Director’s Cut version of Tropic Thunder on my desk, and with it comes several entertaining special features. I haven’t actually watched this new unrated director’s cut just yet (it adds 13 minutes to the film), but I will let you know when I do. Meanwhile, many of the special features are worth seeing, if only for their entertainment value.

Those looking for insightful behind-the-scenes examinations of the making of Tropic Thunder may be disappointed, as the DVD is less concerned with delivering something insightful as it is with being funny. For the most part, the Tropic Thunder features try to make you laugh, and some even interview the cast in character.

Since Tropic Thunder is a movie about a movie, this makes sense. Most of the features are about the making of the movie inside the movie, not about the movie we all went to see. This plays out well. For instance, The Hot LZ Blowing S#%t Up interviews Danny McBride as his character Cody, and he talks about how amazing it was for the crew to just blow into the untouched jungle, remove all the trees and destroy everything in sight in a matter of days.

The Cast of Tropic Thunder is also played out as partially in-character, and at the very least the actors play along in a laugh-out-loud way.

I watched Before the Thunder and Designing the Thunder, but for the life of me cannot remember what those featurettes were about. I believe this were more legit ones, and includes some script readings, casting choices and so on and so forth. There are some good nuggets in here.

Rain of Madness is a particularly funny documentary that plays out like a tragic, behind-the-scenes documentary that looks at what went wrong with the filming of the movie within the movie (did that make sense?). Directed by some British dude (because British narrators are better than anything else), the documentary looks at the problems of the picture and the events that led up to the tragic circumstances to follow. This mockumentary is downright funny at times, as one who didn’t know better could actually take it seriously.

There are some decent deleted and extended scenes as well, and an alternate ending that adds just a little more to the one seen in theaters. Of course, those of you who liked the viral videos that emerged from the MTV Movie Awards, they are included here.

Some of the video rehearsals are quite interesting as well.

The Tropic Thunder bonus features look to make you laugh more than teach you about film, and if that’s your cup of tea, you should find plenty to enjoy here. As for the movie itself, feel free to read my Tropic Thunder movie review.

I’m 26 years old, which means as I watch the movies of the future, I slowly delve into the pictures of the past. A wave of classics arrived in new Centennial Edition DVD packages this week, including Roman Holiday, and it has given me the chance to watch the Gregory Peck/Audrey Hepburn film for the first time.

I’ve only seen a spattering of Hepburn films in my lifetime, but I have realized while she was one of the most sought after actresses in the late 50’s and early 60’s. She was gorgeous, likable and entertaining, and had a knack for picking quality projects. Between Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Roman Holiday, Hepburn set the stage for the modern romantic comedy. It’s absolutely intriguing watching a picture like Roman Holiday, which has a simple, almost ludicrous plot, an unlikely relationship and forced conflict that is reminiscent of today’s romantic comedies. At the same time, it feels fresh and is consistently enjoyable from beginning to end. The same formula that has been duplicated time and time again - and continues to be so - works wondrously well. And this is a movie that was made in the year both my parents were born. (more…)

An entertaining yet strangely sad classic from 1950, Sunset Boulevard is ranked #26 on IMDB’s Top 250. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three others, including Best Writing. IMDB’s extremely high rating is a little surprising to me, but Sunset Boulevard is still a well-done and memorable picture about Hollywood, fading fame and ultimate murder - it’s no surprise that it was nominated for Best Picture.

Sunset Boulevard stars William Holden as a struggling screenwriter who is behind on his payments. Upon eluding some collection agents, he finds himself at the secluded mansion of silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who was the best of her era. Unfortunately, her era is past, but the hermit doesn’t realize it. Accompanied by her butler (Erich von Stroheim, who along with the other actors in the film was nominated for an Oscar), she lives as though she’s still in high demand, throwing parties for herself and driving around a classic but antique car. With the sudden presence of a newcomer - especially one who has ties to the industry - she takes profound interest in him, but will her psychological issues spell downfall? (more…)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is now out on DVD! This was meant to be an advance review, but travel plans, a busy week and little desire to write this DVD review (DVD reviews just aren’t as fun to write as regular movie reviews) means that I’m writing this Tuesday night when I should be zoning out staring at the television. OK, I am still zoning out while staring at the television, but my fingers are apparently typing something that hopefully forms cohesive sentences.

The Guillermo Del Toro action-fantasy flick rushed into theaters with high hopes, good reviews and a great opening weekend. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to expectations, leaving the film to be a victim of opening weekend fanboy rush. Despite a great start, it plummeted in the weeks following. Regardless of its box office performance, Hellboy 2 was a bit of a disappointment for me. While still good, it felt as though Del Toro got caught up a little too much in making fantastic sets and creatures and lowered the priority of the pacing and action. Strangely, this exact flaw is what I was looking forward to in the film, as the first Hellboy was quite good - but not amazing - whereas Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro’s Oscar-nominated drama, was extraordinary. I figured a hybrid of the two would be downright awesome, but it just wasn’t. (more…)

OK. I am going to start with a rant that has nothing specifically to do with The Incredible Hulk (2008) or its DVD. Well, maybe there is some relation. The box boasts that it is a 3-Disc Special Edition, which sounds pretty damn good by anyone’s standards. Three discs, huh? The movie is two hours long, which means that the other two discs must be reserved for special features, right? Wrong, biotch!

The studios have found their latest trick to market things that aren’t nearly as good as they sound. First there was “Collector’s Editions” and “Special Editions” when in fact they were just normal DVD packages. Then there was Unrated DVDs which rarely contained any new, “unrated” material. And now, we have the DVD that contains the digital copy. The digital copy. Who the f**k cares about a digital copy? What percent of people actually give a damn about getting The Incredible Hulk in digital format so they can watch this action movie on their three-inch iPod screen? Five percent? Three percent? Give me the damn digital copy, but don’t market to me that I’m getting three discs of goodness. The digital disc doesn’t give me anything new; it just saves me a step of ripping the movie from the normal DVD. Come on, studios, don’t go down that path!

Anyway, now that that’s out of my system, let’s take a look at The Incredible Hulk special features from its single bonus disc.  To be fair, the first disc - with the movie on it - contains a few deleted scenes and a feature commentary as well, but essentially all of the special features reside on a single disc. Here they are:

• Deleted scenes
  A pretty good amount of deleted scenes that were generally cut for pacing reasons. Some of the scenes go into a little more detail than what was seen in the movie, though there were none that stood out to me as being good enough that they should have avoided the cutting room floor.
• An alternate opening
  You can watch the original opening sequence to the movie. Let’s just say that thank God this one wasn’t used in theaters, because it really isn’t good at all.
• The Making of Incredible
  Your standard making-of featurette. Like the rest of the featurettes on the DVD, it isn’t too promotional at all; at the same time, there’s nothing new or particularly interesting here. Compared to such documentaries as the making of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, it just doesn’t offer anything original. Still, fans of the Hulk should find some tidbits of interest here.
• Becoming the Hulk
  This is an exploration of the creature design, from the models to the special effects to the involvement of Ed Norton. Norton’s insistence that he actually get to play the Hulk in his green transformation is a bit odd, and one makes me think that director Louis Letterier was quite annoyed with the actor by the end of the picture.
• Becoming the Abomination
  Slightly more interesting than “Becoming the Hulk,” this one has Tim Roth doing motion capture and making fun of the suit he has to wear, completely unaware that the guy doing motion capture with him wears that suit for a living. When all is said and done, this one has some value because you get to hear about the intentional differences between the Abomination and the Hulk; though a lot of the effects talk is, for obvious reasons, pretty ambiguous.
• Anatomy of a Hulk-Out
  I never quite figured out what these chaptered segments were for, as they seem to rehash other featurettes on the DVD. Still, for the Hulk fan, the more the merrier.
• From Comic Book to Screen
  These are the kind of featurettes I hate, where some animator is brought on to draw a bunch of semi-static comic book/storyboard friends to make a mini-movie. What a waste of time; I only sat through a couple of minutes of this one.
• Digital copy of the film
  Everything I wanted and more on its very own disc!

All in all, there are a good amount of bonus features to be had on The Incredible Hulk: 3-Disc Special Edition DVD. Of course, none of these really matter to me. The quality of the film matters to me. And it was good enough (read my The Incredible Hulk movie review).

Halloween may not boost theatrical horror releases in the way you’d expect, but DVD sales and rentals have to go up for scary movies come the end of October. Thus, it’s no surprise that the hit Liv Tyler thriller The Strangers slashes its way onto DVD this Tuesday, just in time for the spooky holiday.

The Strangers is about a couple going through relationship troubles who find themselves subjected to a night of terror when a family of masked hoodlums shows up to wreak havoc. What at first appears to be a practical joke gone bad soon reveals itself to be something much more deadly. Basically, the movie is about Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman trying to escape from a bunch of really freaky sound effects.

The movie is pretty scary at times, and the director does a good job of presenting the villains, who often stand silent in the background while the good guy looks the other way. As horror movies go, it gets the job done. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t nearly as good as the director thinks it is, and the film ends up lacking a satisfying resolution or climax. The characters - especially Liv Tyler - turn out to be just as dumb as your typical horror victim, if not dumber, and that’s not good.

Nevertheless, The Strangers is one of the scarier movies of 2008 (read my full The Strangers movie review here), so in that regards it’s worth renting. If you need bonus features to move you from the rental to purchasing stage, however, bonus features does The Strangers lack. Hell, this is a pretty sad DVD by anyone’s standards; other than a few forgettable deleted scenes and a small, rather promotional behind-the-scenes featurette, the DVD contains nothing of value. Wow.

Oh, and the cover artwork is terrible, too.

So, there you go. Decent movie, crappy DVD. You decide. I’ll vote for Obama.

Further proof that traditional animation is by no means dead, Walt Disney recently released its acclaimed classic Sleeping Beauty to DVD and Blu-Ray in an all-new Platinum Edition… and it ended up topping the DVD sales charts for the week. Not only that, but it beat out previous #1 earner Iron Man for such a spot.

It never ceases to amaze me how much demand there is for Disney’s old cartoons; beyond the fact that this implies traditional animation is not dead as long as the story and production values are good, this sales success story also implies that even with all the big kid’s movies that come out each year, parents still scramble for anything that would be good and entertaining for their children to watch. Hollywood, pay attention.

I actually have a copy of Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition, and while laying on my death bed last week, I managed to watch most of the movie (I fell asleep near the end due to drugs and the magic potion the DVD releases into the air to make the viewer feel more involved inthe picture. Personally, I think sleep-inducing drugs is going a bit far, especially for a children’s DVD, but I guess I trust the Disney marketing executives to do what’s best for their audiences). Having not seen the movie since my childhood, I was once again pleasantly surprised at the quality of the picture. The animation, acting and music is great, the story mesmerizing.

Still, a few pieces of the production show their age; when the fairies grant Sleeping Beauty their gifts, the movie sidetracks into a rather cheesy array of special effects that really add no value and will be a bit off-putting to modern audiences. The effects look like they were added because they could be added, nothing more.

Nevertheless, these moments are rather brief and not all too distracting. All in all, Sleeping Beauty is still an effective classic; it has its outdated moments, but its rich animation and artwork make up for those shortcomings.

The DVD includes several special features I didn’t bother exploring, including a virtual tour of the castle, a dance game, an alternate opening, deleted songs, a making-of featurette and a few other thngs.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull rolled onto DVD on Tuesday, and with it the crushed dreams of children-past who were hoping for a flawless, action-packed adventure. Indiana Jones 4 came to theaters amidst a torrent of mixed reviews, and mixed reviews it deserved. The most highly anticipated adventure film was, as it turned out, about aliens. Aliens with big, shiny, plastic-looking skulls. Combine that plot with unnecessary supporting characters and so-so CGI and you get… the latest Steven Spielberg fine?

Frustrations aside, I’m happy Paramount sent me the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, because I will watch this movie again, and hopefully with dampened expectations I’ll be able to enjoy the picture more. In the mean time, though, I watched the special features. With further special editions inevitably coming in the future, the 2-Disc Special Edition is not jam packed as one might expect; there are no deleted scenes, bloopers or even a commentary. However, the discs do contain some in-depth production featurettes, which take you from pre-production through post-production.

These featurettes are pretty good and rather lenthy, though I compare all of these to the best I’ve seen, those from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and they don’t really compare. While detailed, the Indiana Jones featurettes have an air of promotion to them; the interviews with the actors are very sanitized and not particularly insightful. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the exploration of some of the film’s more eleaborate sequences.

Other than that, there’s nothing but a couple of the movie’s trailers. Oh, and if you have an XBox 360, you can play a demo of LEGO Indiana Jones. However, I don’t, so I didn’t.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull has some decent DVD features, but if you aren’t sold on the movie alone and want some superstrong DVD features, you may want to wait until the next edition comes out.

For years, Robert Downey Jr. has been poison. Maybe not complete box office failure poison, but he was a name people immediately associated with drugs, career suicide and uncontrollable. Oh, how a couple of years of sobriety and a super hero can make a difference. Downey is at an all-time career high, and it isn’t too surprising that Chaplin, for which he earned an Oscar nomination fifteen long years ago, is being re-released in a - you guessed it - 15th Anniversary Edition.

I had never seen Chaplin before, nor did I know much about the famed actor other than the few short films I’ve seen of his. The movie, directed by Richard Attenborough, is pretty good, but Downey is tremendous as the British, silent-film innovator. Much of the time he is unrecognizable, and not just physically. He transforms himself into Chaplin, capturing his moves, his mannerisms, accents and behaviors with amazing sincerity. Given that this is Downey’s one and only Oscar nomination, one has to wonder what he would have done over the last fifteen years had he not been flying a kite the entire time.

Beyond his performance, Chaplin is dotted with a dizzying array of supporting actors, including Anthony Hopkins, Diane Lane, Dan Akroyd, Milla Jovovich, Marisa Tomei, Penelope Anne Miller and Kevin Kline. All turn in fine performances, but none stand out in any way or form.

The movie itself is pretty good, chronicling Charlie Chaplin’s life from childhood through his honorary Oscar acceptance in 1972. Attenborough keeps things rather biographical and subtle, avoiding dramatized moments where possible. Unfortunately, this approach leads to an understated feel and a lack of power; while good, the movie rarely captivates. It also doesn’t help that the makeup used on Downey when he’s portraying Chaplin in his later years looks pretty God-awful.

Chaplin is a worthwhile film, though not tremendous by any means. Downey, however, delivers the finest performance of his career.