D Box Chair
© N/A
Terminator 3 on HD DVD, Descent coming to Blu-ray, and a really dumb idea.
By: John SinnottDate: Sunday, October 08, 2006
The Descent
© Lionsgate
A Really Stupid Idea: D-Box: Fox has announced that it has signed a three year contract with D-Box, a manufacturer of high end home theater furniture, to incorporate their proprietary "motion sensor technology" into Blu-ray disc releases. This technology allows viewers with D-Box equipped chairs to feel the action that occurs on screen. When the characters in a film go over a bumpy road, the chair bounces up and down along with film. With these chairs retailing for up to $10,000 however, I don't think this will be a very big selling point. There are only a few thousand homes with these chairs in them (currently owners can download the codes for SD DVDs through a set top box for an annual fee) so it's not clear why Fox thinks that including this coding will significantly increase sales. Sounds like a lot of trouble for almost no return.
Blu-ray to Start Using Region Codes: One of the irritating, and ultimately useless, things about DVDs are the region codes. This is supposed to prevent people from importing DVDs from other parts of the world. So many players bypass the region code check however that anyone who has even the slightest interest in foreign DVDs can easily play them on their home system. Determined not to learn from their mistakes,
Spotlight of the week:
D Box Chair
©
THE TERMINATOR was a low budget film that made stars out of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and writer/director James Cameron. Even if Cameron did lift the idea from a couple of episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS written by Harlan Ellison, he managed to craft a suspenseful and exciting movie that is now considered a classic of the genre. Returning to the idea 7 years later, Schwarzenegger and Cameron managed to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY. One of the few movie sequels that was just as good as the original, T2 cast Schwarzenegger as the good guy this time, sent to the past to protect a young John Connor, the future savior of mankind, from a .
After a dozen years more went by, a third film in the series was made, TERMINATOR 3: THE RISE OF THE MACHINE. Unfortunately they should have left things well enough alone. Directed by Jonathan Mostow, this time around a Terminator (Schwarzenegger) is sent into the past to protect a 24 year old drug addicted John Connor. (Sound familiar?) The new enemy is a Terminator T-X, a femme fatal android more powerful than the liquid metal T-1000 from the previous film. Only it hasn't been sent to kill just John this time. His future wife is in danger too.
This film just didn't work for me at all. It didn't have the heart and soul that the previous two films had and there were just too many stupid plot devices. The thing that made the first films work so well was the character interaction. In the first movie seeing Sara Conner change from a bubbly airhead to a tough as nails fighter who will train humanity's only hope was enthralling. It just wasn't the action scenes, great as they were, but the humanity that the film had. The same can be said of T2. John Connor's character is what drives that film. Who doesn't feel for John when he discovers that all of his crazy mother's rantings have been true? Unfortunately, this third film doesn't offer any such characterization. John Connor was never felt real or interesting, and his love interest was just as bland.
The film is also missing that Cameron touch. Mostow tired, but he really failed when it came to the pacing of the film. The first half has way too many dumb gags interrupted by meaningless action scenes while the second half, though better, tended to drag in parts. The actors weren't much better either. It seems that Schwarzenegger was just going through the motions just to get his hefty paycheck. This film was a sad ending to a great concept.
Misguided as the film was, this HD DVD release is also a bit odd. The first two films were released on Blu-ray, and this third one on HD DVD. I know that three different studios released the movies, but splitting the trilogy across two different formats seems counter-productive. Is there anyone who really wants only this third film? Had Warner Brothers released this on Blu-ray they probably would have gotten some sales from Blu-ray adapters who didn't want to have an incomplete series on their shelves. I can't imagine this being a big seller on HD DVD.
Even so, I have to admit that the image looks good. The detail is great and the colors rich and warm. The blacks are solid and the contrast excellent. There is a bit of grain to the image, especially in dark areas, and this is probably due to the Super 35 film that was used. Even with that defect it's a great looking picture for a not-so-great film.
Upcoming High Definition Discs:
October 3, 2006
THE PAT METHENY GROUP: THE WAY UP HD DVD and Blu-ray
October 10, 2006
HD DVD
ARMY OF DARKNESS
BATMAN BEGINS
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
THE POLAR EXPRESS
WAIST DEEP
Blu-ray
16 BLOCKS
AEON FLUX
CLICK
SYRIANA
U2: RATTLE AND HUM
October 17, 2006
HD DVD
THE BREAK-UP
Blu-ray
THE BROTHERS GRIMM
DARK WATER
GATTACA
GLORY ROAD
GONE IN 60 SECONDS
HAUNTED MANSION
THE PROFESSIONALS
October 24, 2006
HD DVD
12 MONKEYS
THE INTERPRETER
NACHO LIBRE
OUT OF SIGHT
SLITHER
SPARTACUS
THE THING (1982)
Blu-ray
THE ITALIAN JOB (2003)
MONSTER HOUSE
NACHO LIBRE
RESERVOIR DOGS
SAHARAH
October 30, 2006
HD DVD and Blu-ray
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ULTIMATE MISSIONS COLLECTION
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III
