Week commencing 8th March 2010

First of all, an early heads up that next week's update may be late as I'm away at the Microsoft MIX conference in Las Vegas, and internet access isn't guaranteed.

Back to this week, and the week's biggest releases are two 'catalogue' titles from Pixar: Toy Story and Toy Story 2. My copies didn't arrive in time (the joys of Royal Mail!) but by all accounts the HD transfers are stunning, as you'd expect for fairly modern CGI films, and the extra's are not too shabby either. Both these films will stand up to repeated viewings and are suitable for all the family.

Only two releases arrived in time for this week's Monday evening deadline, so let's start with those...

An Education will have a relatively high profile, given that it was nominated for several BAFTA's a week ago, and several oscars yesterday. It didn't win any, and to be honest, it's not hard to see why. It's a good film - but Film of the Year? Hardly. This 60's-set coming of age story has some great performances from a stellar cast that include oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson and others. The screenplay, from Nick Hornby, is strong, and yet... this is a story we've kind of seen many times before. The ending also feels rushed and incomplete, an impression confirmed by a much more complete ending that features in the 16 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly snippets and throwaways) that are included in standard definition on the disc. This is more of a rental than a keeper. The film's definitely worth seeing, but doesn't necessarily need the HD format. There's a fair amount of grain, and the skimpy extra's (the afore-mentioned deleted scenes and a weak 8 minute featurette) are all presented in poor quality standard definition.

Julie & Julia does better in terms of HD picture quality - with some quite stunning scenic shots on the Blu-Ray, but again it's more of a rental than a keeper. Written and directed by Nora Ephron the film is a rather slim tale - or rather two tales - juxtaposing the life of a famous American cook's time in Paris in 1949 (played by the always watchable Meryl Streep) and a modern blogger (Amy Adams) attempting to recreate all her recipes in the present day. Streep gets the meatier role, and it's a charming enough affair, if not a stand-out one. Certainly worth a rental.

By all accounts the Saw franchise has got weaker and weaker with each release, not helped by the decision to rush out a new sequel every year to coincide with Halloween. So my expectations for Saw VI are very low, given that I pretty quickly tired of the repetitive, plot-free franchise and gave up after Saw III. Previous titles in the series have been disappointing in HD, so I don't hold out high hopes for this latest offering.

Title ShinyDiscs (Ian Smith) Public (imdb.com) Critics (rottentomatoes.com) Box Office $Millions (boxofficemojo.com)
An Education (2009) Well-acted coming of age story set in Britain in the 60's. 7.7 3rd 95% 2nd $15 (cost $7.5) 5th
Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (1967) Unseen. 5.8 8th 60% 4th N/A
The Great Rift (TV 2010) Unseen. N/A N/A N/A
How The Earth Was Made (2009) Unseen. 6.7 6th N/A N/A
Jimi Hendrix Live Unseen. N/A N/A N/A
Julie & Julia (2009) Light-hearted fare. 7.3 4th 75% 3rd $122 (cost $40) 3rd
Killzone (2005) Not seen. 7.2 5th N/A N/A
Pink Floyd: Momentary Lapse By all accounts, a disappointing cash-in doc. N/A N/A N/A
Saw VI (2009) Weak horror franchise sequel. 6.3 7th 42% 5th $59 (cost $11) 4th
Toy Story (1995) Pixar classic for all the family. 8.1 1st 100% =1st $362 (cost N/A) 2nd
Toy Story 2 (1999) Pixar classic for all the family. 8.0 2nd 100% =1st $485 (cost $90)

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