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The
Spin Sheet
DVD
reviews by Bill Hunt, editor of The Digital
Bits
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Star
Trek: Insurrection
Special Collector's Edition
- 1998 (2005) - Paramount
Film Rating: C-
Disc Ratings (Video/Extras): B/B-
Audio Ratings (DD/DTS): A/A+
Smack in the middle of the Federation, there's this dangerous
area of nebula and gas-filled space called the Briar Patch...
and smack in the middle of the Briar Patch is this little gem of
a world. It's an idyllic paradise - green, lush, temperate...
and oh, did I mention that if you life there, you never grow
old? It seems that there's a strange kind of radiation in the
planet's rings that rejuvenates living cellular tissue, making
the planet a sort of fountain of youth. On this world, are a
nice little race called the Ba'ku - all 600 of them - who have
decided to give up the technology and live in harmony with
nature.
Naturally, there's another race called the Son'a - a dying race
- that desperately wants to harness this radiation to save
themselves. They'll share the technology with the Federation...
isn't that nice? Unfortunately, the Son'a are nasty little
sons-of-you-know-whats, and their plan to harness the radiation
will make the planet inhospitable for generations. So Starfleet
Admiral Dougherty, who is in charge of the project, has made a
deal with the devil and is about to break the Federation's most
sacred principle - the Prime Directive of non-interference with
less advanced civilizations. Unknown to his superiors, a secret
plan to relocate the Ba'ku without their knowledge has been set
in motion.
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Fortunately,
our old android pal Data has been helping to study the Ba'ku. When
he stumbles onto the plan, he gets shot and goes nuts. Admiral
Dougherty calls Captain Picard, aboard the good ship Enterprise, for
the plans to deactivate Data. But Picard and his crew are
suspicious. When the Enterprise arrives to locate and repair Data
themselves, the crew soon realizes what's happening. Can Picard and
company stop the Son'a, and get word to the Federation before it's
too late? Well, if you don't already know the answer to that
question, you've never seen an episode of Star
Trek.
A lot of reviewers trashed this flick, and I think somewhat
unjustly. No, this isn't loaded with action, and no, there aren't
any Klingons, Romulans or Borg. Neither are there freaky Klingon
woman with busty breast plates, or sexy half-robot Borg Queens. You
know what I mean - the kind of Trek
hokum that's so often thrown in to give the mostly-male fans a
woody. No, this is a film about ideals. This is Star
Trek which examines its principles, and has its
characters forced to make a choice - betray Starfleet, or betray the
very beliefs they hold most sacred.
Before you get too excited however, there's still plenty to cringe
about. The problem here is not with second-time director Jonathan
Frakes - he is clearly very capable, and keeps the action going as
best he can. The problem here is the writing. The ratio of actual
drama to sap is too imbalanced. There are lots of nice little
character moments: we see Riker and Troi finally heating things up
between the sheets (OK, we don't actually see that, but you know
what I mean), we see Georgi finally seeing a sunrise with his real
eyes, and Data's reaction to Riker having shaved his beard is very
funny. All of this is great for longtime fans, but there's SO much
of this that anyone who isn't a Trek
fan will bore in a hurry. And do we really need to see Worf with
nasty Klingon zits, or hear Troi and Crusher talking about how their
boobs are firming up? Yikes. Or yawn. Take your pick.
Paramount's original DVD release of Insurrection
featured a decent anamorphic widescreen transfer. This new 2-disc
version appears to include the same transfer, albeit with much
improved MPEG-2 compression. The original quality is good, with
terrific contrast, gorgeous and richly saturated colors and only
minor artifacting and edge enhancement. The improved compression on
the new release results in slightly greater detail and a cleaner,
more natural looking image with subtly improved depth. I can't say
it's Paramount's best transfer in the Trek
DVD series, but it's good.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack here is outstanding (I believe
it's the same mix featured on the original DVD). There's lots of
great directional play and panning, active use of the rear channels
for atmosphere and effects, and excellent LFE. This new DVD release
offers a superb DTS mix as well, featuring smoother panning and just
that extra measure of additional clarity that helps to produce a
more natural quality to the soundfield.
Strangely, the only extra on Disc One is another text commentary by
longtime Trek art/technical
staffers Michael and Denise Okuda. It's good as always, but it's
probably only for the serious fans. Strangely, Jonathan Frakes
doesn't follow up his director's audio commentary on the First
Contact DVD with another one here. I'm not sure why, but
more on that in a moment.
Disc Two, however, is packed with extras - some two hours in all.
First up, you get seven production featurettes that take you behind
the scenes on the development of the story, the production design,
the construction of the village set, the location shooting, the
stunt work and more. Particularly nice here is a Director's
Notebook (18 mins), in which Frakes talks about his
approach and intent with this film. Frakes himself notes that the
script here isn't as strong as his previous First
Contact. You get to see fun off-camera moments and hear
some surprisingly entertaining stories. Frakes talks about a number
of different scenes and aspects of the production. This piece is
good enough that perhaps it explains why there's no commentary.
Moving on, there are additional featurettes on Michael Westmore's
alien creature design and the 'beautiful alien women' of Star
Trek. Three more featurettes detail the creation of a
trio of effects sequences from the film, including the shuttle
chase, the attack of the flying drones and the revelation of the
'duck blind'. The most welcome of all the extras on this disc is a
series of six deleted/extended scenes, along with an alternate
ending to the film (letterboxed widescreen but unfortunately not
anamorphic). Strangely, these deleted scenes aren't listed on the
back of the packaging. Finally, you get galleries of production
photos and storyboard art, the film's teaser and theatrical trailers
(again, letterboxed but not anamorphic), the original promotional
featurette from the previous DVD release (which means you can sell
your old disc) and a Borg Invasion promo. The video extras are all
full frame and feature optional English subtitles.
I like what Rick Berman and Michael Piller tried to do with Star
Trek: Insurrection, I really do. They just fell way short
of the mark. There's not nearly enough dramatic tension here to
support the story. Still, what action there is is generally solid,
and there are some good performances. Plus, as I said, you get all
those character moments. You might actually appreciate some of
them... even if others drive you nuts.
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Voyage
to the Planets and Beyond
(a.k.a. Space Odyssey)
2004 (2005) - Impossible Pictures/BBC/Discovery Cannel (Warner
Bros.)
Program Rating: A
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): B-/C/C+
Some of you may already be familiar with Voyage
to the Planets and Beyond, which premiered this past
weekend here in the States on The Discovery Channel. This
two-part program (originally shown in the U.K. as Space
Odyssey), follows the adventures of a team of five
astronauts as they embark on a six-year-long grand tour of the
planets in our solar system. They leave the Earth and travel to
Venus and Mars for visits to each planet's surface, then cruise
past the sun to pick up speed for a swing out to Jupiter, where
a daring aero-braking maneuver allows for visits to the Jovian
moons Io and Europa. Then it's on to Saturn and Pluto before
heading home, with a quick stop off at a comet for good measure.
And all this in just two hours. Trust me, it works. I would
never have believed it, but it works.
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Produced
in cooperation with NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the
Russian Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos), the program is presented as if
the events depicted were actually happening. Sometimes you're in the
moment, watching the drama play out, and other times you're treated
to interview clips with the crew or scientists on the ground,
explaining various aspects of the mission or problems that are about
to be faced. A narrator occasionally chimes in to move things along.
This docudrama format works perfectly, keeping you engaged in the
story all the while you're learning about the challenges of manned
spaceflight and what our neighboring planets are like. The
technology will fascinate you, the visuals will amaze you and real
moments of peril and tension will keep you glued to your seat the
entire time.
It's immediately obvious when you begin watching this program, that
the writers and producers clearly knew their stuff. There's
heavy-duty science on display here. The hardware is real, the
physics are real. Everything you're going to see - every little
detail, from the ship's design and technology, to the way the
astronauts move and talk, the planetary surface environments - it's
all meticulously researched and accurate, and it's absolutely
believable.
Voyage was produced in
high-definition, so the DVD presentation is anamorphic widescreen
(and boy, will you ever be glad it is). The imagery here is a feast
for the eyes. There are a couple of quality issues, however. There's
nearly four hours worth of video content included on a single,
dual-layered disc, so there's visible digital over-compression. It's
not a big deal, and you'll only really notice it on large displays,
but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the high-def version
someday (anyone out there make a D-VHS recording of this off
Discovery HD?). Also, as part of the format of the program, you're
sometimes seeing images shot as if by on-board video cameras, which
are deliberately less than perfect looking. That's certainly not a
problem, but it's worth noting.
Surprisingly, the audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
only. Why this isn't 5.1 surround, I don't know, because it would
really enhance the visuals dramatically. The audio is okay - you'll
understand the dialogue just fine, and the sound effects are good -
but a real opportunity was missed here to surround you with the
subtle atmosphere of spaceflight. It would have been nice to find
yourself immersed in the machine noises of the ship, the sound of
wind blowing during a dust storm on Mars, the ping of
micrometeorites against the hull. Disappointing.
While not quite as disappointing as the lack of 5.1 surround sound,
the extras included on this disc are a little less than I was hoping
for too. You get an hour-long documentary on the various robotic
missions to the planets that the filmmakers referenced to help tell
their story. You get another half-hour's worth of short featurettes
(four in all) on the making of the actual program itself. Then there
are some text 'fact files' about the different planets of the solar
system, there's an extensive gallery of production photos and there
are trailers for other BBC science programs. Now, I know that sounds
like a lot. But I was just so blown away by this program that I
wanted a lot more substance.
It's certainly too much for a single disc, which explains the video
quality problems. Voyage to the Planets
and Beyond should be AT LEAST a two-disc set. Hell, if I
were the DVD producer involved in this, I'd push for a three-disc
set. I'd let the program sit on a disc all by itself, with maxed-out
video quality, 5.1 audio and dual audio commentary tracks with the
filmmakers talking about the production, and real astronauts and
scientists talking about the accuracy and details (like Apollo 15
commander Dave Scott, who was an advisor to this program). None of
that is here.
I'd have a second disc be all about the making of this film. A
half-hour is not nearly long enough to do justice to this
production. Just as you start really getting into something
interesting, the featurettes move on to something else. So much work
went into getting every little detail right in this film, down to
shooting bits of it in real (simulated) weightlessness aboard a
'vomit comet' aircraft (a-la Apollo 13).
When I got done with Voyage, I
was ready for another two hours of behind-the-scenes material. As I
said, a half-hour is just not nearly enough.
Finally, I'd have a third disc with additional documentaries on the
planets, the science, past missions, the difficulties of manned
spaceflight, etc. The hour-long piece you DO get is okay, and it
does include a little bit more on the making of the program, but
it's not worth the price of compromising the video quality by
squeezing it all onto a single disc. By bumping it to a second disc
at least, you'd have that much more room to really go in-depth. Ah
well. This will have to do for now.
I really wish Warner and the BBC would have given Voyage
to the Planets and Beyond the kind of love and attention
on DVD that the filmmakers clearly invested in its making. I'll tell
you right now, this is the most realistic, most accurately imagined
and by far the most interesting depiction of a manned deep space
mission that I have ever seen. Forget Red
Planet, forget Mission to Mars
- neither can hold a candle to this. This program is proof that the
reality of spaceflight is infinitely more interesting that anything
Hollywood can conjure. My hats off to writer/director Joe Ahearne
and everyone involved. Bravo!
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Wooly
Boys
2001 (2005) - PFG/Wardenclyffe (Lions Gate)
Film Rating: C+
Disc Ratings (Video/Audio/Extras): B-/B/F
Stoney (Peter Fonda) and Shuck (Kris Kristofferson) are
long-in-the-tooth wooly boys (that's sheep ranchers to you),
living on a backwater ranch in the backwater Badlands of North
Dakota. Shuck used to be Stoney's hired hand, but they've been
working the same patch of dirt together for so long that now
they're just old friends. But life isn't all good out on the
ranch. Stoney's has been having these nasty headaches for a
while now, that he's too afraid to have checked out. What's
more, he hasn't seen his daughter or grandson, who live in
Minneapolis, in many years. So when his birthday shows up again
one day, but a card from his daughter doesn't, Stoney starts
worrying that she might be sick. With the help of another old
friend, who also happens to be the local sheriff (Keith
Carradine), Stoney hops a Greyhound bus and sets off to track
her down in the big city. Naturally, when he doesn't return…
Shuck figures it's time to mount a rescue operation.
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Wooly
Boys is a film that never quite made it into wide
theatrical release. I recall my folks back in North Dakota telling
me that they'd seen it at the local theater, and that I should keep
my eyes open for it. Movies shot completely on location in North
Dakota and Minnesota are rather rare animals these days, so I was
looking forward to seeing it myself for nothing else if not
sentimental reasons. When I heard Lions Gate was going to be putting
it out on DVD, I finally got the chance. Darned if it isn't a pretty
cute little film. Oh sure, it's a little predictable and contrived
in places, some (okay, most) of the characters are obvious and
thinly drawn, and there's a whole subplot about a deputy sheriff and
his nephews trying to steal the ranch out from under from Stony and
Shuck that seems to have been lifted wholesale from a bad episode of
The Dukes of Hazard… but
it's still a cute little film in its way.
Lions Gate is decent enough to offer the film on DVD with an
anamorphic widescreen transfer. It's surprisingly good. There's a
bit of unnecessary edginess to the picture, but the overall detail
is excellent, the color palate is warm and inviting, and the
contrast is solid too. It won't win any awards, but I was pleasantly
surprised. The film's audio is available in Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround that, again, isn't going to raise the bar, but is a more
than adequate match to the visuals.
The only thing that could remotely be called an extra on this disc
is a series of trailers for other Lions Gate films on DVD, but sadly
not one for Wooly Boys. I
suppose that's not too unexpected - this film flew well under the
radar when it was first issued in very limited theatrical release,
so we should probably just be glad it's on DVD at all.
Wooly Boys isn't the best film
ever made in Dakota territory by a long shot, but it's got an
undeniable charm, a decent message and it's good for the whole
family. And hell, as a Dakota boy myself, there's just nothing
prettier than a big sky over an open prairie, with a warm summer
breeze blowing through the tall grass. Life in the vast lane, I like
to call it. You really outta give Wooly
Boys a shot. I mean, come on… when was the last time
you saw a North Dakota road movie? Seriously. |
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