It seems like there were a lot of Blu-ray releases I didn’t get this month. Some I knew I wasn’t requesting because I would be busy covering SXSW, but others sort of snuck up on me. For the first time ever, my Shelf Space Awards are an even mix of firsthand accounts of quality Blu-ray, and hearsay from other reliable sources. I’m still confident that these are the March Blu-ray releases that deserve space on your shelves.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
The Shelf Space Awards: March 2014
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Best Blu-ray
The best looking live-action movie on Blu-ray this month has to be Wong Kar Wai’s martial arts epic The Grandmaster. The colors are practically golden, reflecting in the Chinese lanterns, and when Ip Man fights in the rain, you can literally see the detail of every droplet. This is the U.S. cut of the film so it might have been nice if they’d included an option for both versions, but that could be more of a rights issue than a Blu-ray issue.
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Worst New Blu-ray
Saving Mr. Banks is surely the worst new movie released on Blu-ray this month. No one at CraveOnline liked it, even with second opinions, so none of us wanted to review it again for Blu-ray. I’m sure the transfer is great and it’s got tons of whitewashed extras. The world will be okay without our further opinions on the matter.
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Best Catalogue Blu-ray
I’m surprised I missed this one, as The Americanization of Emily is one of my favorite classic movies. But if Warner Archive put out a Blu-ray of The Americanization of Emily it must be the Best Catalog Release of the month. Posing as a romance between American naval officer James Garner and Englishwoman Julie Andrews, Americanization is really a buddy movie between Garner and James Coburn. They should have had their own Lethal Weapon franchise spun off from this.
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Worst Catalogue Blu-ray
Technically this is coming out April 1, but if no holds are barred, I’ll allow it. According to the first review from Blu-ray.com, Hulk Hogan’s first movie vehicle No Holds Barred does not hold up well in high definition. I’m not surprised to hear that the quality is inconsistent throughout, with some scenes full of digital noise and others completely washed out. It wasn’t a big hit, and since it took this long to come to Blu-ray, one wonders if WWE hesitated to even transfer the film to a format that would reveal its flaws. I don’t think the world is demanding a remastered restoration of No Holds Barred, so I’ll just stick with my DVD.
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Best Special Feature
I don’t normally watch behind the scenes extras because at this point it’s all pretty repetitive. However, since “Inside Inside Llewyn Davis” was the only bonus feature on the Blu-ray, I gave it a chance and found myself engrossed for the whole 40 minutes. Part of it is just marveling at how disinterested the Coen Brothers look giving interviews yet reveal insightful commentary. “Inside Inside” is also just a thorough, beginning to end look at a movie with some technical details you may take for granted in a seemingly simple drama.
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Worst Special Feature
I’m sorry, but “The RZA on The Grandmaster” is not as informative as perhaps The RZA would hope it is. It’s okay, no harm done, we love RZA and his enthusiasm for martial arts, but I almost wonder if the producer of the Blu-ray told him, “Now RZA, don’t get too deep because we’re selling this to people who don’t normally watch martial arts movies.” Maybe it was edited down to mundane tidbits, or maybe it was because RZA was under the weather. He says he has a cold. I’ll ask him if I get the chance to interview him for Brick Mansions.
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Best Cover Art
The artistic rendering of the cast of Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1 is just gorgeous. It captures the B movie aesthetic in a classy way, without sacrificing any of the scantily clad babes and random ducks from the film. The back of the Blu-ray has a quote from CraveOnline but I swear I didn’t pick it for that reason this time. Yes, I like to make the joke that the best cover art has our quote on it, but I wouldn’t overplay it. This is really a beautiful cover, and as Troma’s first movie shot digitally, it looks good on Blu-ray too. Sharp and clear with plenty of room for all the explosive toxic gore.
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Worst Cover Art
There’s nothing wrong with the pictures on these Blu-ray covers, but both films changed the original title of the films. The Truth About Emanuel was called Emanuel And the Truth About Fishes when it premiered at Sundance, and while I understand that’s an awkward mouthful for wide release, the new title is inaccurate. Emanuel is not the one with a secret. Then the Easy Money sequel, I’m just on the same rant about this series. The original title is Snabba Cash, which I feel translates across any language barrier. You have a movie called Snabba Cash and you change it to the generic Easy Money?
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Best Home Theater Demo Disc
As I predicted in my full review of the Frozen Blu-ray, this is the home theater demo of the month, as computer animated features usually are. Not even The Grandmaster has this much detail, and The Grandmaster was filmed in real life! The winter landscapes and bright colors are stunning in Frozen, and particularly details on snow and ice. Water is often cited as a difficulty for animators but they got it right in Frozen, particularly those ice blocks and white snow covered hills.
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Best Boxed Set
March was a slow month for Blu-ray boxed sets. Even if we count TV seasons, which I sometimes do, it was just “Veep” and “Continuum” second seasons. With little competition, it’s easy for the Best of Bogart collection to win the Shelf Space Award for March based on the titles alone. The four Humphrey Bogart classics included are The African Queen, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.” I can vouch for African Queen and Casablanca from previous releases and assuming the other two are up to Warner Home Video’s usual high standards, it’s an easy pick.
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Wait for the Special Edition
Again, I believe now that Frozen has entered the pantheon of animated classics, there’s going to be what Disney likes to call a “Diamond Edition” for the film down the road. I appreciated the minimalist version with a few telling deleted scenes, multi-lingual music videos, a fun cast musical number and a short feature on Walt Disney and Hans Christian Anderson. That’s really all I need, but when Elsa and Anna take over Disneyland, I can foresee a special edition with a lot more princess bonus features, games perhaps, and feature length commentary from the directors. When it happens, remeber I called it.
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Most Exciting Announcement
Just in time for the big summer blockbuster version of Godzilla, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing four double features of old school Godzilla movies. While it is far from a complete collection, it’s a start, and may be the only eight Sony has access too, excluding their own 1998 remake. Since I need to do my own Godzilla homework, I’ll look forward to battles with Mothra, King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, SpaceGodzilla, Destroyah, Megaguirus, and whoever he fights in Tokyo S.O.S. and Final Wars.
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April's Most Anticipated
If any of you had the will power to avoid buying any Harry Potter movie until the complete set was out, I applaud you. Those of you who had the tenacity to hold out even past 2012‘s Harry Potter Wizard’s Collection, you called it. The Harry Potter Hogwarts Collection is out April 25 with all eight movies and over 45 hours of bonus materials from the previous single movie releases and Ultimate Editions. But, now there’s going to be prequel movies, so are you going to keep holding out until the complete set of 9 or 10 movies?
