THOR (By Chuck)

Thor - the next installment in the buildup to the Avengers movie in 2012 - has loads of promise, with director Kenneth Branagh at the helm. This movie has a promising plot of a son making a foolish decision and being sent to exile to learn from his mistake. Unfortunately this plot fell short in it's execution.

Upon being cast down to earth, Thor's weapon of choice Mjǫlnir (myol-neer) is also sent to earth with an enchantment that doesn't allow anyone to move the hammer, unless they are "worthy." At one point Thor gets hold of Mjǫlnir but hasn't learned his lesson yet and is beyond rueful when he is unable to move his hammer. From this point on Thor never really gives us much of a reason to feel bad for him, and this is where the execution of the plot really left me... bored, to be honest. Thor really never really seems too concerned about getting back to Mjǫlnir or overcoming the reason for his banishment. He's actually more interested in teaching Jane (Natalie Portman) about Asgard and the finer points of intergalactic travel (worm holes.)

I want to say I was at a disadvantage not knowing anything about Thor, but I didn't know a thing about Iron Man and I felt that Jon Favreau educated me about Tony Stark and Stark Industries, the origin story of Stark/Iron Man. On top of having Iron Man plainly laid out for me, I was genuinely entertained with not only a gripping plot and story, but smart, witty and at times snarky dialogue. Thor left me waiting for the dialogue, action, and storyline to get better... but it just never happened for me.


In short, I think I could benefit from a 2nd viewing of Thor, but my knee-jerk reaction is to say that most would probably benefit from a discounted matinee, waiting 'til the dollar theater, or even RedBox. I give Thor 2.5/4 stars.

Blu-Ray vs DVD

I was in Blockbuster, not too long ago and there was a video playing that had a side-by-side "comparison" of DVD vs Blu-Ray quality. The DVD images looked so fuzzy that I thought the DVD images were an exaggeration. I was sure DVD's I'd seen in the past had never looked this terrible before. (these are the same images from the video that I saw in BlockBuster http://www.hifi-writer.com/he/bdreviews/cars.htm)

Well, DVD's I'd seen before really never did look that bad, not until I got an HDTV and a Blu-Ray player that display DVD images in a manner that was not intended for DVD. DVD's are designed for and best seen on a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) set... you know the TV's that were the norm, before 3 inch thick wall-mount TVs were the only thing available at Best Buy. CRT's are not designed to show the same amount of detail that an HDTV is designed to show you.

For the sake of those that are not familiar with the technology of what high definition is doing to a DVD, imagine this: The Blu-Ray Player and the HDTV are trying to show you an entire image, but it can't, because DVD doesn't have 100% of the information it needs to display the entire image, therefore the display process has to "guess" or compensate for missing information, which is why DVD's - when viewed via Blu-Ray and an HDTV - look, well frankly, awful. And until you see a side-by-side comparison of DVD & Blu-Ray, honestly, you probably are not going to notice too much of a difference and will continue to ask yourself why there is such a craze over Blu-Ray when DVD "looks" just fine.

So, because I didn't believe DVD's were as absolutely terrible looking as the BlockBuster demo was suggesting. I decided to provide my own comparison that has not been enhanced or altered with any software of any kind. In fact, unlike others that are fancy enough to have software on their computer to generate other screen shot comparisons, I used Disney's Enchanted and took the following 2 pictures with my Nikon 5 MP camera. My player is an LG Blu-Ray player and the TV is a 40 inch HD Toshiba running 1080p, which translates into: this model of TV is able to show an image at the highest available quality that man can currently record and produce.

(click on the image to see full detail)


At first glance you might think that there isn't a difference... well get your face a little closer to the monitor. Overall I think it's obvious which looks better, but to point some things out, first of all, make sure you are not looking at the thumbnail above and you have the full size image open in another window:

-The high rise buildings in the upper left.
-The reflection of the tress in the water, the edges are very soft and blurry on DVD and very crisp and defined on Blu-Ray.
-Shadows in Amy Adams hand are very defined, while they are very soft and almost make you feel that you are looking at something out of focus, on the DVD side.
-Right behind the right side of Amy Adams hand on the DVD side you just assume there are people in a boat. On Blu-Ray you can tell there is a boat with people in it.
-On DVD the trees on this shot look like a big green blurry mess, while on Blu-Ray you feel like you are actually looking at trees.

After this comparison if you are still determined to not "jump on the bandwagon" think of a couple of things:
-Just as reel-to-reel was replace by that ultra-large and clunky VHS machine, which was replaced by DVD, so too has (not will) has the Blu-Ray player replaced DVD. It's just simply technology advancing and not something that you have to be a fan of to be a reason to get HD and Blu-Ray technology. Just get it, because it's replacing old technology.
-Get an HDTV and Blu-Ray Player sooner than later so you are buying your movies now in HD, instead of later. Might as well make the transition into HD and Blu-Ray now so you can enjoy HD quality now, instead of later. You'll regret having a library of movies that look grossly blurry.

The Fighter

2.5/4 stars

Micky Ward is a struggling welter-weight boxer, who is managed by his mother and trained by his half-brother Dicky. Micky has been used as a stepping stone to assist in advancing the careers of other boxers.

Dicky Eklund's 15 seconds of fame was a match with Sugar Ray Leonard. Since this pinnacle career match Dicky turned to drugs and eventually finds himself in prison for it.

In Dicky's absence, Micky see's an opportunity to work with people in the boxing industry that won't set him up with matches where he'll just take the fall. This doesn't bode over too well with the manager/Mom.

Micky manages to get his mom and Dicky (who is released from prison at this point) to accept the fact that he has people in boxing that are not trying to use Micky as a money maker and secretly steal Micky's winnings, but that they are really interested in his career to eventually get a shot at the world welter-weight championship.


The ClearPlay experience
Language:
This movie had enough muted-swears to power a small country, coupled with actors that oft-times mumbled or whispered their dialogue made this a semi-difficult movie to understand how people were communicating.

There is a lot of vulgarity used that was muted which caused me to miss out on some of the conversation information to make sense of what people were talking about. Seriously I can't remember the last movie I ClearPlay'd where there was so much muted dialogue.

Despite that I couldn't understand entirely what was being said, you get the gist of it and eventually pick up on what's happening.


Sex:
In only 1 instance could I recall that any sex at all was implied got skipped seamlessly, which is always good to skip - but to have it happen seamlessly is the icing on the cake. Taking out the sex from The Fighter did not leave me feeling at all uninformed.


The Fighter is rated R, but with ClearPlay this one has a common sense rating of PG-13. Those younger than 16 might be bored, due to the 2nd act of the movie surrounding Dicky's drug troubles and eventual incarceration. The movie started feeling like it was dragging a little at this point, but it isn't terribly long before we get back to focusing on Micky.

Rango (Reviewed by Ed)

2.5 out of 4 Stars

 

“So you want something to believe in?  Believe in that there sign.  For as long as it hangs there we’ve got hope.”  This line from the movie really sums up what Rango is all about.  When I first saw the poster I didn’t have high hopes for this movie but when I saw the trailer my perception of the movie went up a little bit…but not much.  I reluctantly took my 8yr old and 13yr old to see this movie.  I wish I wouldn’t have.  While Rango has a lot of great moments in this movie I had a very hard time with the amount of swearing that they put in.  Basically it was the same two swear words (Hell and Damn) but the way they were used were pretty strong.  These words were used probably a total of 10 times throughout the movie and for a PG “kids movie” it was a bit shocking.  If I were to see this with some adults I wouldn’t have been as uncomfortable, but with my own kids (one of them being under 10yrs old) it was hard to watch. 

 

Rango (Johnny Depp) is your average homebody lizard that has a knack for theatrics.  He loves using the surroundings and props around him to do his theatrical shows.  When he finds himself out in the middle of a desert, after he falls out of the car that he was in, he is put on a journey to find the town of Dirt by an armadillo that he finds run over in the middle of the road.  Rango finds the city of Dirt, an untamed western town tormented by villains and desperately short on water.

 

Rango must use his ability to role play, and after standing up to some local thugs and killing the bird that terrorizes the local townsfolk, the mayor of the town (Ned Beatty) makes him sheriff.  The story comes down to how is Rango, the new sheriff in town, going to help the local folks get water to survive.

 

The story is well written and I found myself wanting to find out more of what was going to happen next.  The characters in the movie were strange, scary, funny and all around wildly exaggerated.  The animation was top notch and the actors they brought in were some pretty big celebs (Johnny Depp, Abagail Breslin, Alfred Molina and Bill Nighy just to name a few). 

 

I just had a hard time getting past the typical sexual references (most of which would go over a child’s head…but not all of them) and all the language that was scattered throughout the movie.  Yes it is a PG movie but it’s a PG animated movie so I guess I assume that they will be kid friendly.  Well unfortunately this movie isn’t kid friendly.  I probably would’ve given this movie 3.25 or even 3.5 stars but it only gets 2.5 stars because of the un-kid friendliness of this movie.

 

Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!

Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 1
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 3 (I think ClearPlaying this movie would make it better)
Would I buy the movie? 1

 

"Rango" is rated PG for Action, Language, Rude Humor, Smoking, Violence, Mild Sex References, Mild Violence, Scary Scenes, Not Recommended for Young Children.

Buried

3/4 stars

Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) is a civilian truck driver in the middle east delivering supplies. His convey gets attacked, he blacks out and wakes to find himself buried alive in an old fashioned wooden coffin.

Armed only with a zippo lighter and a smart phone, he must hold his composure while trying to get various people in the U.S. to belive that he's buried in the dessert in the middle east. All the while he must be careful to not allow his lighter and his anxiety attacks to exhaust his air supply.


The ClearPlay Experience

With Buried being rated R for violence and language, I only chose to filter the absolute worst violence and language, which still left a lot of audio muted in a lot of instances, due to Paul dropping the f-bomb rather frequently. (He is buried alive after all.)

I couldn't detect any skipped scenes, so I'm not sure what violence is in this movie, except for one moment where Paul's kidnapper sends him a video of a co-worker being shot with an automatic weapon. This video he watches is blood-free, very quick and the co-worker is off camera when the gun is fired.

Back to language, when ClearPlay mutes dialogue, if the actor's face is on screen you can read lips to know what is being said, but in this movie it's dark (figuratively and literally), and due to the low lighting conditions on Reynolds face for a lot of the dialogue, most language that is muted you cannot see what Reynolds character is saying, which makes this experience all the better.


Buried is rated R for violence and language, but even with the violence and language filters at the absolute lowest setting this one has a common sense rating of PG-13 for the face-value content lacking inappropriate language and any violence, with the exception of the really brief video he is sent. The subject matter of being buried alive in a coffin and dealing with the possibility of never being rescued might be inappropriate for those under 18.