Blu-ray Review: Without A Paddle

The rip-off of deliverance is available in crystal clear Blu-ray

In 1972, a movie was made about a group of friends who traveled down the fictional Cahulawassee River in rural Georgia. These friends canoe down the river, get mixed up with some hillbillies, and end up losing one of their buddies along the way. Deliverance was a ground breaking film at the time, and has been awarded 3 Academy Awards along with several Golden Globes.



Though it is set up as a parody and rip-off of Deliverance, Without a Paddle is nowhere near as good, nor as ground breaking, as it could be. Instead, Without a Paddle is a teen-flick full of college humor and pranks. From feces filled bags to stereotypical hillbillies, the movie has nothing near the wit and sophistication of Deliverance. Toss in a bunch of pot jokes and bad actors and you have the makings of this movie.

WAP tells the story of Jerry (Matthew Lillard), a corporate tool who loves to serf, Tom (Dax Shepard), a deadbeat who simply seems to continue his college life, and Dan (Seth Green), a hypochondriac doctor who has never been laid in his life, as they attempt to have one last adventure. When they were younger, the guys, along with a fourth friend named Billy (Carl Snell) pledged to find the infamous D.B. Coopers treasure.

Though the three had moved on, Billy had plotted and discovered where the treasure was. Trying for years to get the guys to go on a vacation, Billy was stuck with the knowledge but without his friends to share it with. However, upon the death of Billy (for reasons we never know, but it serves as a good plot point), the guys take this vacation to honor their dead friend. Along the way they encounter a resistant sheriff, two pot farmers, and D.B.’s partner (played by Burt Reynolds as homage to his character from Deliverance). The movie ends with the guys all growing up and fulfilling their duties.

Though the movie is an adventure-comedy, the laughs are few and far between. Too often WAP relies on sophomoric humor and crude jokes. While there are some good scenes (most notably the bear cub scene), the vast majority of the film just roles on with nothing. This lack of humor, with laughs few and far between, made the movie a chore, and not that great of a watch.

Along the same lines, as it is an adventure, you would expect it to be, well, exciting. Needless to say, WAP is not that exciting of a movie. Though the actors all did their own stunts, it is clear that most were within the confines of a stage, and the few that were real were not that good looking. The only real stunt performed was clearly done by stunt doubles, as you could tell from the camera shots on the class-5 rapid near the end of the film. Without any real action, this movie felt boring and really pushed the audience away from it.

Though the acting, script, and action of the movie are severely lacking, I really enjoyed the way it looked on my TV. The water flowed and bubbles realistically, with the sky-blue coloring sticking in my mind. With Tom and Jerry, I could see most of their facial hair and where it was coming from, which made me feel up-close and personal. Overall, the quality of the film, as well as the transfer onto Blu-ray, went a long way in making up for the lackings of the movie itself.

Likewise, the sound quality of WAP was well done and deserved a better movie to go with. I never lost dialog, nor did I have any issue hearing the background noises from the river. I enjoyed having the sounds of nature surrounding me, and this movie happily obliged. Just like with the film quality, the sound of WAP was far better than the actual movie.

As for extras, WAP has none that are really worth while. They have the normal director’s commentary, 13 deleted scenes that were even less funny than the actual movie, and promotional trailers. Frankly, these all were a waste of space, as they fulfilled no need and just served to bore me as I went through them. There was one extra, however, that was somewhat worth it: MTVs look at making the movie. I really enjoy filmmaking and so when I have a chance to see how a movie was made, along with the various techniques and stunts done, I really like it. Sadly this look into the making of WAP was far too short and didn’t make up for the lack any other useful extras.

Overall, I believe that Without a Paddle is not worth the purchase price. The movie is crude, badly written, and really seems like a waste of an hour and a half. Though some people might find it hilarious, I did not, and I do not think that the vast majority of people will. If you are planning on getting the movie, however, the image and sound quality of the Blu-ray version make it worth the upgrade price.

Movie: Though it possessed some good actors, nothing could save it.
Blu-ray Quality: The color of the river will stick in your mind
Sound Quality: surround yourself with the peaceful sounds of nature
Extras: only one extra was worth it, and it wasn’t even that long
Overall: a waste of an hour and a half

Without a Paddle is Rated PG-13 for drug content, sexual material, language, crude humor and some violence.
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Blu-ray Movie Review: Sin City

Sexy Dames, Lots of Blood, and a Castration: what’s not to love?

Ahh, Sin City, a city with a name more perfect has never existed. The city is streaming with sin, with pestilence, and with irony. Sin City calls forth to the tough, the thugs, the corrupt, and the lonely. They surge into the city like fleas on a dog, their bites stinging and their bellies fat with blood. Even without the steady stream of new faces, Sin City plays host to thousands of other deadbeats and lowlifes. The police force is corrupt, strippers and hookers stand on every corner, and there is no end in site. Sin City, the last place on God’s green earth that you would ever want to live.



Sin City tells three stories that are intertwined and run closely together. Though they interact throughout the movie, we are lead to believe that they really are just separate events throughout the course of a day in Sin City. We start off by meeting Hartigan (Bruce Willis), one of the few uncorrupt cops in the hell hole of a city, and, more importantly just a few days away from retirement. With his wife home making a juicy steak, Hartigan has just one more case to wrap up, that of Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba). Needless to say, this one last case doesn’t end the way he wants it.

Flash forward and we meet Marv (Mickey Rourke), a two-time felon who is always in trouble. He has a beat up face, thousands of scars, and a penchant for coats. Oh, and he is obsessed with some dead hooker named Goldie (Jaime King). He travels through the underground of the city, searching for her killer, and finding all sorts of ‘fun’ in the process. On his hands there is blood, and I don’t mean that figuratively.

Jumping to the third and final story, we meet Dwight (Clive Own), “a felon with a new face and just one fingerprint away from the gas chamber”; what a chirpy and energetic character. While he might sound bad, he is a vigilante with a passion for dames and a desire to see justice done. We follow Dwight as he and his hooker friends try to keep the mob from returning and ruining Old Town, a part of Sin City where the hookers rule and the cops know their place. Explosions, trickery, traitors, and a sexy little Asian named Miho (Devon Aoki) are all just elements of this story. Finally landing with the girl of his dreams, Dwight is the only one to have a happy ending (pun intended).

Joining these great actors are even better known names. Benicio Del Toro shows up as Jackie Boy, the rival of Dwight. Josh Hartnett shows up as The Man, an unknown (personally I think that this is Dwight before surgery) hitman who is hired to kill those hiring him. The stunning Brittany Murphy plays Shellie, another lover of Dwight’s. Frank Miller himself even shows up, playing a bit role as a murdered priest. These actors all contribute to the look and feel of the movie, and they make it so much better.

Topping all of the other actors, however, is a character who doesn’t say a single thing. All we know is that Kevin smiles a lot, has really reflective glasses, is faster then Marv, and eats humans. Elijah Wood, in his first acting job since Lord of the Rings plays Kevin remarkably well, and gives him an interesting personality. All we know of Kevin we learn from others, yet somehow we feel connected to him throughout the movie. Wood plays this role well, and gives us the emotion we need simply from a face. It is amazing how far you get drawn into this character, and that is a credit to Wood.

Sin City, for those of you who do not know, if a movie directed by Richard Rodriguez and based off of the graphic novel by Frank Miller. Similar to Miller’s other works, the graphic novel seems extremely well thought out and planned. All of the characters are real, there is proper growth, and they are all three dimensional. To add to the feel, Miller would hire great artists and colorists to get everything to jump off of the page at you.

To recreate this feel in a film was hard work, but Rodriguez was up to the task. Sin City was a series of five stories, though only three are usually talked about. The stories are told in an interesting manner, with characters linking them, and events in common, but they are really supposed to be separate; well, that at least is what the production team claims (I have my doubts). By keeping the stories unique, and by having different stories in one movie, Sin City is able to capture the actual feel of the graphic novels, and this is something that I enjoyed immensely.

Taking it even further, Rodriguez utilizes imagery and coloring to bring the graphic novels to life. When we look at the world, we normally see it in hues and pastels; only the important things (break lights, eye color, stunning blonde hair, and perk pink nipples) capture our attention. Miller colored based on this, and Rodriguez translated it into the film. Things that would seem normal and mundane are in black or white, to symbolize how useless they are. Only the interesting, and intriguing, stuff are in color, and it symbolizes the importance to the story. This is a good method of engrossing people into a story, and it helps to show what needs to be seen.

There is no better way to see this contrast, and to have the colors leap out at you, then by watching it on Blu-ray on your HDTV. Seriously folks, I have never seen a better transfer to HD in my entire movie viewing life. Sin City raised the bar with their image quality, and they clearly are ready to set the new standard. Marv’s blood jumps at me, with the red glistening and reflecting just like it would in real life. The perk pink nipple of Goldie, well, let’s just say that they were very lifelike. Movements of fabrics, hair, and even bullets didn’t seem to cause any ghosting or blurring, which is very rare in a transfer. Everything in Sin City looked perfect, and it all looked absolutely jaw dropping.

Adding to the intensity of the coloring and quality of the movie, the sound that came out of my 5.1 system just shattered my perceptions of what was possible. The narration was front and foremost, the dialog was perfectly balanced, and the score streamed by my ears. I was fully immersed into the story, and I actually jumped in surprise when I heard sounds behind me. To give you an example of what it felt like, imagine being in a city and having somebody shoot at you: first the bullet whips by you (rush of wind), then you hear the gun (bang bang), followed by random ricocheting in the distance (for about 10 seconds). This is exactly how it sounded coming from my system, and this just amazed me.

When I see a movie with great image quality, I normally expect to see far less extras, as they needed the room on the discs. Sin City was not the norm. The two-disc Blu-ray edition is jammed pack with extras and special additions. I really liked the extended and recut versions of the movie. We see far more interactions between the characters, more intertwining of the stories, and a better take on Miller’s novel. In reality, I really do not understand why these scenes were cut and believe that they should have been in the original version. The only downside here is that they are told story by story, and that really throws off the way you saw it in theaters.

My favorite extra, however, was “The Long Take”. This was a 14 minute look into a scene directed by the great Quentin Tarantino. In the scene, Dwight imagines that he is talking to the dead Jackie Boy, hilarity ensues. I really liked the conversation, the actions, and the emotion that both actors put out here. As the actual film used less then 10 seconds of this clip, I am really glad that they added it into the film, and it is something that I recommend to everybody.

I simply can not praise Sin City enough. The movie is flawless, the imagery stunning, and the sound perfectly balanced. This is the perfect movie for any comic book guy, graphic novel reader, teen, or college kid. Heck, I am willing to bet that most adults would love Sin City. Even if you already have it on DVD (as I do, twice), I recommend that you get it on Blu-ray. Yeah, it is that much better.

Movie: Compelling story, good script, and great acting
Blu-ray Quality: Wow, just wow, the new standard of HD images
Sound Quality: Sounded like I was really being shot at
Extras: Loved the extras, and there were tons of good ones
Overall: Can not praise Sin City enough


Sin City is rated R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue. I do not recommend that you let any kids younger then 15 view this movie as it is extremely violent.
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Blu-Ray Review: The Matrix: 10th Anniversary Edition

I like steak so I chose the Blue pill

Just ten short years ago, two brothers created the 28th best film of all time (As rated by IMDB readers). the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, had limited film experience, yet they teamed up and put out a movie like the world had never seen before. Utilizing stunning special effects, ground breaking freeze-motion, and tieing into the emerging computer world, this movie caused every person who saw it to pause and ponder. Yes, just ten years ago, The Matrix was born.



The Matrix tells the story of Neo (Keanu Reeves), a small-time employee in a tech firm by day and a hacker by night. During the first few scenes with Reeves, there is the feeling that something is wrong with the world. Neo can not tell you what it is, but something is amiss, and something just isn’t right. To explain the real world, Neo meets up with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and sees the truth. That is, Neo sees that the world really isn’t a world, but it is merely a computer situation.

After being removed from the simulation and thrust into the real world, Neo is forced to come to terms with thousands of new things. He can learn Kung Fu, how to fly a helicopter, and get anything he wants all by being plugged into a machine. He must accept that food does not really taste good, that he will be living a limited life, and that everything he thought he knew was wrong. In short, Neo must restart his life, while at the same time finding out what his true destiny is.

I have always been a big Matrix fan and have loved the movie ever since it first came out. Though I abhor the sequels, the original movie is great, a classic, and a very good watch. The Matrix uses many literary metaphors and stories to tell a compelling tale. From Alice in Wonderland to several Sartre and Niche stories, you can follow the course of illusion and existentialism throughout the movie. The Matrix also nicely ties in various historical and biblical references, as the ship is a type Mark: 3:11 and called Nebuchadnezzar.

Another thing that I like about The Matrix is the symbolism that is inherent in the movie. From the references already mentioned, to the color hues in the film, this movie makes sure to use any and all symbols that it can. The Matrix talks about right v. wrong, the concept of what it is to be human, and even the technology struggle shown in Frankenstein. Even the names of the characters tie into the symboligy, as there are three main parts to the puzzle (Trinity), a new man (Neo), and a change to the world (Morpheus). The Wachowski brothers pulled all of the stops to make sure that The Matrix showed the world as it was and is.

Back in 1999, when The Matrix first came out, the movie was used by geeks, audiophiles, and rich people to show off exactly how impressive their surround sound system was. The movie had rich audio and booming bass, which set the standard for all DVDs to come. Though it is no longer the standard, the audio in The Matrix: 10th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray was still exceptionally good, clear, and perfect on my 5.1 sound system. I could hear all of the dialog, had no issues with volume, and even was able to hear the clattering of each shell casing as it hit the ground. Though the audio is no loner the standard, it still is up to par and a good mix.

Along the same lines, the visual quality of The Matrix: 10th AE is stunning and superb. The colors, which are hued greener or bluer, depending on if you are in the Matrix or not, are vibrant and bright. The black levels are deep and properly adjusted for HD viewing. Overall, the transfer was well done and the movie looks really good on my HDTV. That said, however, if you are looking for the modern HD look, where you can see pores and sweat, then the transfer will be disappointing. The only downside of the transfer was that the film retained a grainy look; this look, however, actually fits with the mood of the movie so it wasn’t that bad.

Did you know that Carrie-Anne Moss was an actress in a TV show called The Matrix, an unrelated show that was on Canadian television a few years before the movie? Well, I didn’t, but I do now thanks to a 30some page booklet that came with the movie. You can read biographies, filmographies, production information, trivia, and even an essay about the movie in this book. This is unusual and lacking in many other anniversary or special editions of movies, and it is something that I really enjoyed.

The Matrix: 10th AE comes jammed with tons of extras that are well worth your time. Besides the booklet, the Blu-ray itself has four commentaries, a documentary about the sequels, and the normal slew of deleted and extended scenes. Additionally, there are an amazing 19 featurettes comprising 3 general categories of the film. All of these extras are worth watching, as they all take you further and further down the rabbit hole. The only downside here is the fact that they are all the same as the DVD, HD-DVD, and Ultimate Collection versions.

Overall, The Matrix: 10th Anniversary Edition is a great movie to add to your shelf. This represents the first time that The Matrix has been put out on its own on the Blu-ray format so you don’t need to waste precious space with the sequels. That said, however, if you already own the Ultimate Collection then you don’t need to get the movie as there is nothing new in this release. The Matrix is perfect for geeks, nerds, and any action junkie, as well as all teens.

Movie:this movie is one of the best ever made
Video: the transfer is well done and the colors are good, but it isn’t what you have come to expect from Blu-ray
Audio:the sound is amazing and well done, but not nearly as grand as it used to be
Extras: You truly can find out how deep the rabbit hole is by watching these extras
Overall: There is no excuse for sci-fi lovers not upgrading to the Blu-ray version

The Matrix is rated R for sci-fi violence and language.
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Blu-ray Review: Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics

A drop of blood on a smiley face button never looked so good

In the 1980s, two comic books redefined how the genre (and its fans) were interpreted by the world. Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen branched the stereotypical stalwarts of comics and took an emerging new genre and made it much better. The stories were still told via graphics and text bubbles, but they went further than Superman and the like. The stories were darker, the action was harder, and the sex was rampant. Suddenly, comics were more than a past time, they started to emerge as an actual means of telling the story. Thus, graphic novels, which had existed since the 1970s, emerged into the publics vocabulary.




Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics spins a dark and compelling tale. Starting in the 1940s, the tale follows the adventures of masked superheroes who serve the interests of their country. From creating the atom bomb, to fighting in her wars, these heroes (the Watchmen) strive to help America out while they still manage to fight crime. In the late '60s, however, Nixon decides to outlaw the masked crusaders, and they are forced to live normal lives. Only two remain on the government's payroll, Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian.

After retiring, most of the Watchmen stopped talking to each other and started to work in their separate lives. However, after the murder of Edward Blake (The Comedian) -- don't worry, this is the start of the movie, there is nothing spoiled here -- they are forced to unite once again. Rorschach, a man with an ever changing mask, believed that somebody took out Blake because he was a hero, and not for any other reason. With this in mind, Rorschach starts to unite all the other Watchmen as he digs deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that is far larger than anything he could ever have imagined.

What is so fascinating about the Watchmen graphic novel series is the quality of the artwork. Unlike most comics, Watchmen focused on the art as a means to tell a story, and therefore it was a primary concern to artist Dave Gibbons. Due to this, Gibbons made sure that all of his art was well done, that there were only a few mistakes, and that the images served only to progress the story. This was groundbreaking for the time, but it has since become the status quo for modern graphic novels.

What is cool about Watchmen: TCMC is that it stayed true to the overall feel and look of the graphic novels. Watchmen: TCMC literally takes the pages from the books and puts them on your TV. To make this interesting, they add a narrator and they added a little bit of animation to each frame. Cars will 'move', people will 'walk', and mouths will 'speak', but the overall imagery is the same. It is all very basic, but the animations tend to fit the overall feel and look of the story.

The only real thing detracting from Watchmen: TCMC is the fact that the entire thing is voiced by Tom Stechschulte. Yes, Tom voices everybody, including the women and children. While this makes Watchmen: TCMC seem as though it is being read by a person to themselves (as most graphic novels are), it doesn't go over that well. Most of us do not read in a monotone - we all create voices for each character - and the fact that Stechschulte speaks in one voice doesn't help in this regard. Personally, I really think that this harmed the movie, as it threw me off and caused me to do double takes (the listening version of a double take, of course).

Speaking of the sound, Watchmen: TCMC is presented in a perfect 5.1 blend of music and Sellers' voice. The music, as composed by Lennie Moore, fit the mood and theme of the movie quite well. There are no instances where the music overwhelms the narration, and no instances where it works the other way; all of the sound is blended thoroughly and completely throughout the movie. The only thing missing in sound is variation of Sellers' voice, but that is asking for too much.

As for the video quality of Watchmen: TCMC, one merely needs to pick up a copy of Watchmen. What you see on the page is exactly what you get on Watchmen: TCMC on Blu-ray. The compressed image plays at about 10 mbps, but it doesn't affect the overall look of the movie at all. The colors are vibrant and stunning, as the yellows, greens, and blues all jump out at you. What is especially nice is the fact that the black levels are deep, yet they still contain the proper ink feel from the graphic novels. Personally, I do not believe that the masked heroes looked any better then they did on Blu-ray.

Though Watchmen: TCMC on Blu-ray is a stunning visual piece, it is severely lacking in another area. There is basically nothing in the extras category of the menu that is worthwhile. I don't want to see a preview of the new Wonder Woman movie, nor do I want to see the cast members of Wonder Woman talk about their various roles for about 15 seconds. The Video Journal, which sounded promising, was really just a quick piece where Moore explains how happy he is with the translation of his novels onto the big screen. For such a beloved and important graphic novel, Warner screwed this section up by leaving out any useful or good extras.

Overall, I believe that Watchmen: TCMC is a movie designed to serve one of two purposes. It exists to draw people into the realm of Watchmen, and is mainly to be seen before the actual movie. On the other hand, it also exists to serve a strong demand from people who loved the novels when they came out. Watchmen: TCMC is perfect for these people; it is also good for any person who likes comic books, graphic novels, or Watchmen on the big screen. Due to the imagery of the movie, I strongly urge you to get this on Blu-ray over standard DVD.

Movie: The movie is flawless and stunning and only held back by the single voice narration.
Blu-ray Quality: A drop of blood on a smiley face button has never looked so good.
Sound Quality: Well mixed and well formulated.
Extras: There is nothing important here.
Overall The movie is great for anybody who loves comics.

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics is unrated but intended for mature audiences only. References to sex, drugs, and violence abound.
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Blu-ray Review: Caligula (1979)

Please keep in mind that Caligula is an extremely pornographic movie; continue reading the review with that in mind, if you wish. Unlike all of my previous reviews, I think that I will be starting with the technical aspects of Caligula, then moving into the actual movie itself. See, I think that more people focus on the end of the piece, not the beginning, and believe that the actual review of Caligula, as a move, is far more important than the review of its Blu-ray parts. With that in mind, let’s start with the visual aspect of Caligula on Blu-ray



The visual quality of Caligula is exactly what you would expect from a movie made thirty years ago. Grafting a movie onto a blu-ray disc can slightly improve the quality of the look, but what really matters is the quality of the film that was used in the first place. Caligula used low-quality film for the cameras, and that shows up when you try and watch the movie on a HDTV. You can easily see ghosting, the grains of the film, and several other problems with the actual imagry.

That said, however, not all was bad. With the move to blu-ray, the colors of the film seemed to become brighter, and the black levels were deeper. This is easily noticeable in the first few scenes, especially the opening forest scene and the introductory swimming scene. I am not sure exactly what caused this change, if it was a digital enhancement or simply a product of the blu-ray process. Either way, the color change was appreciated and very interesting.

Moving onto sound, you notice that Caligula is not presented in the normal Dobly TruHD that is typical of blu-ray movies. Nope, it is presented in a Dolby sound that is stereo; the typical one you will find from standard DVDs. I was not really too happy with the sound quality, but I didn’t expect much coming from a movie that is roughly thirty years old. There are occasional spots where the sound mixing fizzled, where you lose dialog, and a few times where the volume change is absurd. Once or twice the music got a bit too loud, and it drowned out everything else.

There, now all the bad stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about Caligula as a movie. To start, I think that we should have a little history lesson. Ancient Rome was not sexually obsessed in any manner. As a Roman History major friend put it: ”they were much more open about sex; however, they were also far more conservative then modern America”. Basically, the Romans were fine with the concept of sex, but they were not having sex all of the time, nor were they having sex in public. This is a major theme of Caligula, and one which is greatly incorrect. Sure, it might be a movie, but I do not like things this historically off of center. No matter what you might see saying otherwise, the Romans were not hyper sexualized.

Caligula tells the story of a fledging Roman youth (I wonder what his name is) as he migrates from being the heir to the throne, to being the emperor, to being beheaded. This movie starts with Caligula’s rise to power, when he is frolicking in the woods having sex with his sister. It then moves on to when he ascertains the throne of Rome and discusses his popularity and love. Finally, the movie comes crashing down due to the madness that we associate more often with Nero. The movie does this in a somewhat slow paced fashion, which surprisingly fits the film. Oh, and on a side note, it interjects hard-core pornography throughout.

Caligula has several major stars to its name which gives it some acting chops. The movie stars Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) as the emperor himself. His love interest, and sister, is played by Teresa Ann Savoy ( Salon Kitty ) and she shows acting ability that was not seen in her earlier works. Academy award winner Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen) plays Caesonia with the same passion and energy that she has come to be known for. The great acting cast is rounded out by Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia) and Sir John Gielgud (Chariots of Fire). The great actors have companions that are not so great at acting, the porn stars that did all of the sex scenes.

Caligula was a very interesting movie to watch. I had no idea that it was so pornographic when I decided to review it (I did have a warning about mature) so I as a bit surprised. However, it was not as bad as it was described on the interwebs. Don’t get me wrong, my sensibilities and boundaries were definitely breached (I never want to see homosexual sex, no matter what gender, again); however, that didn’t mean that the movie was not enjoyable. The acting, as mentioned above, was quite good, the overall story was compelling, and the script was decent. I really liked the interplay of the various actors, and they pulled the movie off perfectly.

Quite frankly, my favorite part of Caligula as a movie was the cinematography and direction used throughout. Caligula was made like a big budget film (it was one of the first big budget to also utilizes hard core porn) and was thus quite well done. The shot angles, coloring, and overall feel of the movie struck a tone with me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must say that the stylistic approach of this movie was probably one of my favorite approaches to any film that I have seen recently (save Watchmen, of course). This alone seems to redeem the random pornography that runs rampant.

Speaking of the random pornography, Caligula seems to be on a lot of hit lists because of the nature of the film, and the overall graphicness of it. I do not like how they implemented the pornography (they added it not telling the main actors, and they never got their consent); however, that doesn’t mean that the film was bad. No, I think that you need to look at the nature of Caligula in a concave lens, and see the actual point of the movie.

Caligula is a movie that is designed to be confrontational and controversial; it is the best way to make people discuss the actual movie, and the intended points. No, Caligula is no Cannibal Holocaust, nor is it an older version of The Basketball Diaries, but it still serves the same purpose. I believe that Caligula gets you talking, and that it drives forward the interplays between various people in the past. This movie was not intended to be a drama, nor was it intended to be a classic; no, Caligula, it seems, was intended simply to be a thinker.

How many porn movies do you know that allow you to get off of your ass and actually think about the movie? What was wrong with a proposed marriage to his sister? They both loved each other, and they both wanted it – they just simply were not the right ethnicity. What about the homosexual sex in it, or the group sex (disclaimer, this author did not mean to imply that homosexual sex and group sex are in any way related)? The point of Caligula was to make us rethink the social norms of our time, when we could see another empire of debauchery still standing up. Remember, in Caligula, only the rulers of the moralistic mess fell.

I believe that Caligula will eventually be redeemed in the eyes of society. The debauchery, lust, immorality, and all of the other fun and exciting things will be looked at as a lesson, or a story, instead of filler. I believe that society will come to accept the movie and will start to realize that Caligula is just as worthy as Kids or Reservoir Dogs due to the fact that it causes discussions and makes you think. Sure, it uses pornography to advance itself, but that doesn’t mean that it is a bad movie. I thought that it was a thinker, and I hope that you do too.

Overall, I believe that Caligula is an interesting and thought provoking movie. It is no Bully, but it will make you sit up and think. I am not sure who to recommend this too, as it has a very limited audience, but I think that anybody who is comfortable watching this level of ‘action’ will be okay with the movie. It is good for college kids (trust me, they won’t mind it) or people who want to use it to spark discussion. Do not give Caligula to kids, evangelicals, or history majors. With the fact that the quality of the film is not that much better on blu-ray, I recommend that you get it on standard DVD.

Movie: Once you look through the porn and vulgarity, you find a compelling tale and amazing filming
Blu-ray Quality: No real difference from the DVD version
Sound Quality Same as the Blu-ray quality, nothing new
Overall the thought invoking movie can not make up for the hyper sexualization or the lack of an upgrade in film and sound

Caligula (1979) is unrated but is exceptionally mature. Vulgarity, sexuality, sex, pornography, nudity, violence, blood, gore, etc. are seen throughout the movie. Please do not let a kid watch this.
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Blu-ray Review: Body of Lies

In this day and age, it is hard to find a film about war, be it a real one or a covert one, without finding that it leans one way or the other on the issues. If you are talking about a real war situation, it is even harder to create that film without your bias showing. Many director's, and script writers, have attempted to do this with a whole slew of movies, and only a few have succeeded. Director Ridley Scott (of Blade Runner fame) and writer William Monahan (writer of The Departed, another DiCaprio movie) hide their biases extremely well. Though they show up occasionally, Body of Lies is clear of most political and cultural biases, which is a good thing in a movie.



Body of Lies tells the story of Roger Ferris (Leo DiCaprio), a divorcing undercover agent who is stationed in various states across the Middle East. Roger tours the Middle East on CIA assignment to take out terrorist bad guys. Basically, he is the CIA's covert agent and gets to kill a whole bunch of people while looking quite bad ass in the process; who doesn't want this role? He is one of the smarter people you will be meeting in the movie, and he has a very unique outlook and take on the culture that he is immersed in. Additionally, his gut is usually right on and he is often ready to do what his country needs him to do. Think of him as Bond, except cooler, and American.

Roger has a hotheaded, culturally insensitive, and downright odd boss, Ed Hoffman (Russel Crowe). In normal Croweian manner, Ed is blunt and forceful, but intelligent at the same time. Ed is a family man, lives in DC, and is always at his kids events when he is planning destruction of the Middle East. In fact, he seems so out of place that the viewer is left wondering how he ever advanced in the field without doing anything. He has the same brain as Roger, but he thinks that shock and awe is a great tactic. The interplay between these two serves as a debate over which tactic is better in the military: that with blunt force or that which literally gets only your target. Frankly, the acting from both Crowe and DiCaprio during this interplay is so well done that the viewer actually gets into the debate.

Though it seems as if the two-man power struggle over their methods is the main debate in Body of Lies, a smaller debate is brought out by the third main character. Mark Strong plays Hani, the chief of Jordan's intelligence service. He is a man who is tired of the world, tired of politics, and just wants to go home. But he understands international politics, especially those with the US, and he cares only for his country. Thus, he is forced into the movie to deal with the CIA and their puppets. Hani serves the role of fostering a debate about American action; Roger will promise him something, and Ed will ignore that promise. In this small debate, Body of Lies is getting us to understand and look at how American's conduct our international politics. Monahan and Scott are trying to get us to discuss, and think about, how we promise one thing, but often do the other.

Though there are some missed opportunities for other debates, or for more character interactions, Body of Lies pulls off its mission flawlessly. The movie gets the dramatic interplays down perfectly and leaved the viewer thinking about exactly what should happen and how our country should, or should not, change. This sort of result from a movie is what you want to see in good work, and it is quite evident here. I would recommend Body of Lies to any student of international politics, as it is a good examination at the real interplays that occur. For everybody else, a fast paced action movie is always a good watch.

Body of Lies has one other little touch that makes the movie stand out from the stereotypical genre it is in: the coloring levels. Though I first noticed this in The Matrix, where the coloring levels were more green when you were inside the simulation, it is obviously noticeable when you are watching Body of Lies. When Roger is in the Middle East, and we are in an action scene, the imagery becomes much more vivid, much brighter, and much more intense. When we see Ed at his kid's soccer games, back in the US, the color becomes blue-tinted, and everything fades a bit. Though this seemed like a camera problem at first, I quickly noticed that it was intentional and was being used to reflect the feelings of the actors at that given moment. This use of color, to control your own mood while watching, is done quite well. It deserves this moment of acknowledgment as it really does draw you more into the characters.

Speaking of how Body of Lies looks, let's move onto the technical aspects of this blu-ray release. Body of Lies is presented in your typical 2.4:1 wide screen aspect ratio. The imagery is captured well on the disc and makes it look better then the original theater version. There is no ghosting during the movie, and all of the scenes look as they should. The black levels were full and dark, and all there was plenty of contrast. The entire movie was crisp and rendered well.

The actual visuals of the movie were stunning. From the dirt being kicked up by the jeep, to the hair on DiCaprio's head, everything was visible in full resolution. Throughout the movie, the detail that is added catches you off guard. You can read the screens of the laptops and see all of the small hairs sticking out of Crowe's face. The details and clarity of the film are impeccable. The movie also adds a sense of depth to it (see the helicopter scene), using the coloring and the blu-ray quality to seemingly have the objects on screen jump out at you, or immerse you even more. I was wowed by the quality of imagery presented to me, and I think that all but the most videophile of you out there will be wowed as well.

Body of Lies soundtrack is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound. The overall quality of the sound is suburb and the mixing is just as good. My favorite part was that the explosions sounded realistic, and were properly adjusted compared to the other noises throughout the movie. It always annoys me when an explosion is only two times the sound of a car driving, and Body of Lies made sure that I wouldn't be annoyed by their explosions. My only real complaint in the sound department is that the dialog does get lost during the fast paced scenes. This makes it harder to follow. While this may just be because they used realistic levels, it actually harms the movie slightly.

Body of Lies on blu-ray comes with the usual cast of extras. It has the director's commentary, where Scott, Monahan, and the novel's writer, David Ignatus, discuss the book and the adaptation. It has Interactive Debriefing, which is basically just a grouping of clips from Crowe and DiCaprio talking about their roles, how they worked, and the like. There are four deleted scenes, which would not have added much, and an alternate ending, which I think was arguably better then the one included in the movie. There is the BD-live extra and a digital copy for you to have on your iPhone or laptop.

There is one more extra, which happens to be my favorite, in Body of Lies; Deconstructing Body of Lies is a nine-part featurette that takes you even further into the movie's story. Running a full 90 minutes, this series is the length of most movies, which makes it tedious, but also very informational. This extra looks at various character relationships, the costuming, the interplays, the sets, and the rest. It is a compilation of the usual featurettes from other movies, but it is all interlaced well and given to you as one long extra. Frankly, I really like this setup and think that anybody who enjoyed Body of Lies will also like this feature.

Overall, I feel that Body of Lies is a great movie to add to your blu-ray collection. The movie is a surefire way to get you and your family/friends to think about the issues facing America overseas, think about how we act, and think about what you want your country to do. This movie is a discussion maker, and you should use it as one. I recommend Body of Lies to anybody who is a student of political science, international relations, or anybody who just wants to learn more about American interplay in the Middle East. If you have the choice, the quality of the movie makes it worthwhile to grab on blu-ray over standard DVD.

Movie: The movie is flawless and well done, it is only missing a few opportunities
Blu-ray Quality: Stunning, simply stunning
Sound Quality: Great balancing and mixing, superb quality, occasionally looses the dialog
Extras: Typical extras, but Decontructing Body of Lies is great
Overall: Great movie for students, teachers, and anybody who is interested in American Foreign Policy.

Body of Lies is rated R for strong violence, including some torture, and for language throughout.
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Blu-ray Review: Tommy Boy - Holy Schnike Edition

Tommy Boy, one of the funniest movies of the '90s, has come out in a brand new format. Thirteen years after its initial release, the movie is finally available in Blu-ray High Definition and comes packed with extra features to make it worthwhile. The film, which only got a 46% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, has amassed a cult following giving it an 83% from the community. The combination of three talented comedic actors (David Spade, Chris Farley, and Dan Aykroyd) makes this an absolutely hilarious movie. The audience also fell in love with the character of the self-depreciating fat man. The Tommy Boy Blu-ray releases on December 16, just in time for Christmas shopping.



Tommy Boy tells the story of a lovable loser, Tommy Callahan the Third (Chris Farley), and his quest to save the city of Sandusky, Ohio from going under. After his father (Brian Dennehy) passes away, Tommy is tasked with saving the family auto parts manufacturing company. To make matters worse, the company is the only business that is keeping the city alive, and Tommy's love interest and all of his high school buddies work there. Thus Tommy, in his effort to save the company, hits the road with his partner, Richard Hayden (David Spade), to sell auto parts to stores around the country. As with all road comedies, the usual high-jinks soon occur.

Tommy Boy is one of the better comedy movies; while most focus on body humor and fart jokes, Tommy Boy has a sense of wit and satire to it, making it hilarious. Sure, there is some bodily humor, like the great "fat guy in a little coat" scene, but some of the best comedy comes from the two main actors, Farley and Spade, just chatting back and forth. Their one-liners, along with some of the facial expressions on Farley, make this absolutely hilarious. Spade and Farley, accompanied by an all star cast including Brian Dennehy, Rob Lowe, Bo Derek, and Dan Aykroyd, combine to make this a rip-roaring, side-holding, fully unforgettable movie. You will laugh throughout as its one-joke-after-another pacing is perfect. Under all of the laughs, however, there is a love story to follow, and the typical good vs. evil story. That said, the evil in Tommy Boy is sexy and funny in its own right.

The film is presented in 1080p high definition with a 16.9 aspect ratio. The extra materials, with the exception of the theatrical trailer, are all in 480p and formatted in full screen. The image quality of the movie is good but not up to the normal standard of HD content. The image transfer is not as perfect as you'd want. That said, however, it is still quite good quality and you can still see each wisp of hair on Spade's wig.

Tommy Boy outputs English audio in the 5.1 Dolby True HD format. It also has Spanish in 5.1 Dolby Digital and French in 2.0 Dolby Digital. The audio is perfectly blended, though it gets a bit loud when Farley screams. You can hear all of the dialog, yet you're still able to pick up all of the background noises in shops, and all of the noises from the road. The only issue is that it is not balanced; some scenes are far, far louder than others, which makes you need to reach for the remote often.

DVD Extras

• Commentary by director Peter Segal
• Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter
• Stories From the Side of the Road
• Just the Two of us
• Growing up Farley
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended Scenes
• Alternative Takes
• Gag Reel
• Photo Gallery
• TV Spots
• Theatrical Trailer

Normally I do not like deleted scenes, as I feel that they were left out of the movie for a reason; however, with Tommy Boy, I must say that the deleted scenes were by far the best extra. Some of the scenes that were left out of the movie were far funnier than those that were included. I think that most of the scenes add to the overall movie, and thus it is a good feature to check out.

Like deleted scenes, I normally do not like featurettes, as I find them boring and full of information I really do not care about. Who really cares about how a movie was made, or how many takes a specific scene took? That said, with Tommy Boy, I really like the Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter featurette. The stories in it, along with the focus on all of the actors, is quite amusing. I found the part about Beverly Barish-Burns (Bo Derek) and her bikini to be quite hilarious and true. This feature was impressive, and gave me some nice information, and even more laughs, about a movie that I enjoy greatly.

Overall, I think that Tommy Boy: Holy Schnike Edition is a great title for your DVD and Blu-ray collection. The image quality is good, the sound is good, and the jokes are as funny as ever. The extras make the Blu-ray version so much better than the standard DVD version, and with the price not that restrictive, now is the time to get Tommy Boy. Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift for your father or brother, or buy it for that comedy-loving friend of yours.
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