Sunday night was date night here at the Ipe household. The kids were staying over at the in-laws, and we had the evening to ourselves. After mucb contemplating about extravagant evening entertainment, we went the simple route — have dinner locally, then come home to watch a movie. Naturally, pajamas and snuggling on the couch were required. We hit a local Italian restaurant, then came home to watch Bridesmaids over Walmart’s Vudu service.

Vudu Streaming Audio screenshot

Now, we had waiting to see this in the theater upon initial release, but schedules never worked out. I’ve used Vudu in the past, and never had a complaint. Vudu offer 3 video resolutions — SD (480p), HD (720p), and HDX (1080p.) Now some film material is available with Dolby Digital Stereo (2.0), 5.1, and 7.1. During the film, I noticed we were only getting stereo sound, which boggled my mind. Wait a minute, stereo? I would have stopped it and done some investigating, but that would have ruined “date night”, so I let it be. I’ve been researching, and it seems that not all films on Vudu are streaming in surround sound. I went online just now to check out the forums, and the “More Info” tab for Bridesmaids. Check out the video/audio format on the right of the attached screenschot. Dolby Digital Stereo. Egads, who’s verifying available audio formats before you rent a streaming movie? Live and learn.

What can you do? What’s done is done. Might as well get on with talking about Bridesmaids. You know, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this film. There was much comparison to 2009′s The Hangover, except from a bachelorette perspective. In that case, wouldn’t it be more like Tom Hanks’ Bachelor Party? The cast is huge, featuring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd, John Hamm, and many more. Turns out, the film is much different than I thought.

Kristen Wiig’s character Annie is the best friend of Maya Rudolph’s bride character Lillian. As Annie comes into conflict with one of the other bridesmaids, her life continues to fall apart during the pre-wedding planning. The film features all of the idiosyncratic bridesmaids, including an outstanding and memorable performance by Melissa McCarthy. The film’s plot didn’t go where I thought it would exactly go, so I found it entertaining.

Bridesmaids (2011)

One the gifts the kids received for Christmas was Cars 2 on blu-ray (and DVD.) In case you recently came out from living under a rock, Cars 2 is the sequel to the 2006 Pixar film Cars. I actually liked the original Cars in a way — it’s very similar to the 1991 film Doc Hollywood starring Michael J. Fox and Julie Warner. Again, FYI in case you were living under a rock in 2006 too. So what’s this sequel about? Lightning McQueen and tow truck Mater (who I need in small doses) head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. Where do you go from here? Why, an international espionage, of course! Michael Caine stars as Finn McMissile, a spy car. Lightning McQueen takes a backseat while this becomes nearly two hours of Mater and Larry the Cable Guy. If you like the Mater character, you’re in luck. If, like me, tire of the character quickly, be warned.

I thought this film was “okay.” I’m not a fan of Mater, so after a while, I went off to do the laundry while the kids sat entranced. The Mater character is the star attraction for 106 minutes. The story was okay, but I just didn’t care for all the wacky antics. On the other hand, the video and audio quality of the blu-ray was top-notch. It’s possible that John Lasseter and the rest of the Pixar folks got too involved with the technical detail, and got sidetracked on the quality of the story. So, apart from the story, the animation is crystal clear, eye-catching, and just looks amazing. Regarding the audio, you can never go wrong with DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. The fronts were booming, the LFE shook the floor, and the surrounds were very active.

In summary, the story is so-so. If you want to plunk yourself down with the kids and enjoy the visuals and audio, be my guest.

Cars 2 (2011)

Sometime last summer, we were supposed to see Crazy Stupid Love in the theaters on one date night, and then also on a vacation day. Neither day worked out, and we ultimately missed the film while it was still playing in theaters. Ah well, what can you do. It took a few more months, but we waited patiently for Netflix to pick it up, and here we are. As is our annual New Year’s Eve tradition, we watched a film, and we went with Crazy Stupid Love this year.

As romantic comedies go, I thought this was pretty good. Here’s the synopsis, courtesey of the good folks at IMDB.com:

A middle-aged husband’s life changes dramatically when his wife asks him for a divorce. He seeks to rediscover his manhood with the help of a new-found friend Jacob, learning to pick up girls at bars.

The film has an all-star cast:

• Steve Carell
• Ryan Gosling
• Julianne Moore
• Emma Stone
• Marisa Tomei
• Kevin Bacon
• Beth Littleford
• John Carroll Lynch

I’m generally rather disappointed with romantic comedies — they’re never written well, and I find the plots to be trite. On the other hand, I thought Crazy Stupid Love was rather well-written. The plot had some well-travelled themes, but it went another level. The characters were good people and interesting. As a result, I found the whole film to be ultimately engaging.

Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

Ah, I love a four day weekend. Today, we bought our tickets early, and took the kids to see The Muppets, the latest Muppets film, which I believe Disney wants to bring back in a big way. Jason Segel both co-wrote and stars in this film. Along with Segel and your favorite cast of Muppets, the film also stars Amy Adams, Chris Cox, Rashida Jones, and a number of actors in cameos.

The film’s premise is reminiscent of the first three Muppet films — a ruthless business tycoon wants to tear down the now-shuttered Muppet Studios and drill for oil. Segel, Adams, and a new muppet named Walter, discover the plot, and work to reunite the Muppets to save the studio. I’ll admit that I’ve struggled in the past to reconcile my memories of the Muppets when I grew up, and the voices of the Muppets in the post-Jim-Henson world. The voices are still different to my ears, but I’m learning to let it go.

I have to say the movie was pretty good. I liked how the premise acknowledged the existence of the original Muppet Show and the earlier films, with many references to the old programs. Those were the old shows and films that they acted in, but now had all moved on. Furthermore, the world had forgotten them, and they now had to find relevancy in 2011.

The Muppets were fun again, the songs were engaging enough, and everyone had a good time. Success. I hope there will be many more new Muppet films.

The Muppets (2011)

Friday night, I came home to change my clothes, and get back on the road. I was to meet up with my buddy Doug in Clifton, NJ to see Immortals. This is that stylized action film loosely based on elements of Greek mythology, in the vein of the 2007 film “300.” (which I’ve also seen), but they have no connection with each other. Tarsem Singh directed this film, and here’s an interesting portion of his Wikipedia entry:

Tarsem is a Sikh-American and was born in Jalandhar, India. His father was an aircraft engineer. He attended the Bishop Cotton School, Simla, Hans Raj College, Delhi, and is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Tarsem began his career directing music videos, including those of “Hold On” by En Vogue, “Sweet Lullaby” by Deep Forest and R.E.M.’s smash hit “Losing My Religion,” the latter of which won Best Video of the Year at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. He has directed dozens of commercials for brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola.^[3] Tarsem’s feature film directorial debut was The Cell (2000), starring Jennifer Lopez. 

With all that background information, let me tell you that I did not enjoy this film. It was a slightly different style from the Zach Snyder 300 film, but I believe they immitated that style hoping to cash in. Unfortunately, I found the story and the characters to be dull and boring. I never found myself invested in any of the characters (including the protagonist Theseus), nor did I find the plot at all interesting. Furthermore, the action itself was either boring or entirely too gruesome to be enjoyable. Oftentimes, I felt that a particular death was made gory, in order to achieve some sort of shock value that would excite 13-year old boys.

It wasn’t interesting. It wasn’t fun.

Immortals (2011)

When the Captain America: The First Avenger film was released this year, I had all the intentions of watching it in the theater. Unfortunately, something or other came up, and I never got a chance. I ultimately ended up waiting for the home market release on October 25 2011. The wait wasn’t as interminable as I thought, and October 25th got here fairly quickly in my guestimation.

In case you didn’t know, this film is a prequel of sorts to the big May 2012 Avengers ensemble film. The film stars Chris Evans as the titular Captain America / Steve Rogers, with Hugo Weaving playing the Red Skull. There are, of course, other actors, but none of the supporting characters (Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Dominc Cooper) play very integral parts of the overall film. The film shows how a scrawny-but-good-kid like Steve Rogers gets selected as the first candidate for the U.S. Army’s Super Soldier program.

Unfortunately, the serum is lost, and Steve is the only person with it in his genes. The U.S. Army doesn’t know what to do with him, and he ends up shilling for U.S. bonds across the country in daffy musical shows. Eventually, he finds a way to prove his worth in battle, and he leads the offensive against the Red Skull’s HYDRA organization, an offshoot R&D group within the German army.

The audio and video were pretty good on this blu-ray disc. The video quality was good, but the colors were a little dull. Maybe this had to do with the war scenes. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 was fun, with lots of activity. The storyline and the action were entertaining, and I thought the acting was pretty good. Not the greatest superhero film, but I thought it was up there with Spiderman 1 and 2. It was 10x better than this year’s Green Lantern stinker.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

I took Monday off to relax and get some cleaning up done at the house, and maybe even clean up a small degenerate slice of Gotham, which I did. I also sat and watched Michael Mann’s 1995 crime drama Heat. If you haven’t seen it yet (though I believe I’m the only one who hasn’t), it features an all-star cast, written and directed by Michael Mann. The film stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro cast, but also includes:

• Val Kilmer
• Jon Voight
• Tom Sizemore (pre-career implosion)
• Amy Brenneman
• Ashley Judd
• Natalie Portman (small role)
• Mykelti Williamson
• Dennis Haysbert (small role)
• William Fichtner

De Niro stars as Neil McCauley, who leads a professional criminal crew that scores on big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars.) After a botched job, Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division begin hunting McCauley’s crew. What I liked about this film was that both sides were very smart, and at times fairly likeable from a certain point of view. Both sides had families (except leader McCauley), and they were all pretty smart. Speaking of families, McCauley follows a dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor — “Never have anything in your life that you can’t walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner.” However, he meets Amy Brenneman’s character, and falls in love. As the noose tightens on McCauley and his crew, you have no idea how the story will unfold.

I liked the plot as it was unpredictable. I liked the characters as they were very nuanced, and the dialogue was very great. I also liked how nobody was a fool in this story — both the criminals and the detectives were smart, so you had two worthy teams of adversaries squaring off against each other. I watched this film on blu-ray, and it was a pretty good transfer. The video quality was decent for a mid-90′s film, and the Dolby TruHD 5.1 audio was excellent — the dialogue was crisp, the LFE (bass) was big, and the rear speakers were surprisingly active.

Heat (1995)

This week, I watched the 2011 X-Men: First Class film by Matthew Vaughn. After the miserable Brett Ratner X-Men:   The Last Stand travesty from five years ago, this film is an attempt at a reboot of the franchise. Now, let’s agree to never speak of X3 ever again.

As I mentioned above, this film is a reboot. However, I think it’s an interesting reboot. Instead of taking place in the modern era, the film takes place in 1962, around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Well, that’s not entirely true. The film initially begins with a recap (or another take) on Erik Lehnsherr first discovering his mutant abilities while at a Nazi concentration camp. This is basically a slight variation or reshoot of the same scenes from the first X-Men film way back in 2000. It gives additional backstory, then the story gives a similar introduction to the young Charles Xavier, and Mystique. Afterwards, the story fast-forwards to the 1960s when Lehnsherr, Xavier, and the others are presumably grown-up. Lehnsherr is hunting Nazis, including Kevin Bacon’s Schmidtt / Sebastian Shaw character. In time, Xavier and Lehnsherr will build a team of mutants, seen in the poster below.

I thought the film was pretty good. I like how the film’s events were moved to the 1960s, which makes this very unique compared to other superhero genre films. At times near the conclusion, I felt that the story was starting to get away from the writers, i.e. becoming incohesive.  I started to get a little incredulous at parts, primarily when they all started giving cool nicknames to each other. I’m not a big fan of cornyness in a serious film. If this is truly a first in a new trilogy, I’m excited.

I watched on blu-ray, and the video and audio quality were good. Everything looked crisp and colorful, and it all looked natural. The disc features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track, which sounds good, especially during the dialogue and the action scenes. However, I found the audio to be very front-heavy, with little activity on the surround speakers. Maybe it’s the nature of the film as there was a lot of dialogue.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

In order to properly inaugurate the new 7.1 surround sound setup, we watched Hulk Vs. on Blu-ray. This is a 2009 direct-to-video set of two short films starring Marvel’s Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Wolverine comic book characters. I didn’t mind seeing them, as the kids obviously animated films featuring comic book heroes. We don’t allow the kids to watch stupid stuff like Spongebob. No way.

More importantly, I wanted to put the new back surround back speakers through the paces. I was sure they would be fine, but still, I want to rent a few more loud bombastic action films, and decide if it’s better or not.

Regarding the disc itself, it features two short 30+ min films featuring Hulk fighting each marque character, but the plots were very basic. Heads up on spoilers:

• In Hulk Vs. Wolverine, the Hulk leaves a path of destruction in the Canadian wilderness. The Canadian military flies Wolverine in to stop the Hulk any way possible. The first half of the short film has Wolverine up against the Hulk. However, Deadpool, Omega Red, Sabretooth, and Lady Deathstryke are on a mission to capture both Wolverine and the Hulk. Their objective is to capture them, so that the evil scientist can weaponize them. Wolverine must then work together to escape their fate.
• The second short film is Hulk Vs. Thor. Loki, the Norse God of Mischief intends to use the Hulk to attack Asgard during the last day of the Odinsleep. Loki eventually loses control of the Hulk, and the Hulk’s destruction is likely to bring about Ragnarok.

So what did I think of both short films? I sat and watched both with the kids, and there wasn’t too much that was inappropriate for the kids. The Hulk/Thor story was much stronger, but I didn’t feel either film was all that. The characters were more interesting in the Thor film, but not by much.

Regarding the audio and video quality in either film? Video and audio quality was good in both, but I didn’t find the back surrounds were utilized all that much. I know in a good home theater setup, the audience shouldn’t be surprised to hear noise behind them, but I want to hear something.

Hulk Vs. (2009)

Saturday night, I watched The Hurricane, a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington. This is the Hollywood version of events surrounding the incarceration of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a talented African-American boxer in the 1960′s who was wrongly imprisoned for a triple-homicide for about 20 years in Rahway State Prison. Directed by a fellow named Norman Jewison, the cast is decent, and I noted Liev Schreiber, Dan Hedaya, John Hannah (from The Mummy movies) and Harris Yulin among the actors in this film of note. Oh, and of course, Vincent Pastore of Sopranos fame.

I think much like many people, I first heard about the plight of “Hurricane” Carter from Bob Dylan’s protest song “Hurricane.” It’s natural to be curious, no? Turns out, there’s a bit of a controversy with the song, as no one truly knows the truth at this stage about really happened at the Lafayette Grill that night in Patterson, NJ. Patterson police have never solved this crime. Also, many facts cited in the song were not accurate.

This film is generally well-received by critics and people who have watched it (83% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.) Jewison was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Directory. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy award, and won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor. Personally? I’ll give credit to Denzel for a fine acting job. However, I didn’t like this film very much. Why is that? Why do I fly in the face of overwhelming love for this film? I find fault for the misrepresented facts of Carter’s life and the case itself, as documented in both his criminal and military records, and police reports and court documentation. I’m a guy who likes his documentaries, and his character dramas. If you are going to make a film about historical events, I want to watch this visual representation of what happened. It’s like watching a documentary, but with better acting and a bigger budget. To watch a movie that has significantly revised events, it’s less about what happened, and more a fictional tale that pretends to be accurate.

I remember back in 2001 when my wife and I went to the theater to watch Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, the story of mathematician John Nash who suffered from schizophrenia. A well done movie, but criticized for historical inaccuracies. Once I read the whole story about John Nash, I liked Ron Howard’s film a lot less.

Apart from the historical whitewashing of actual events, I didn’t quite connect to this film. It wasn’t the acting per se, but there was a certain 1990′s “this film is a character battling adversity” vibe that was all too blatant for me to enjoy. It felt dated, and not subtle. Sorry, folks. Not my favorite movie.

The Hurricane (1999)