MTV JOINS WITH GEORGE CLOONEY, GOOGLE, THE UNITED NATIONS AND OTHERS TO HELP DETER WAR IN SUDAN

Network Amplifies Groundbreaking Satellite Sentinel Project, Calls on Young People to Show that the “World is Watching”

MTV and mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, are teaming up with George Clooney and the Satellite Sentinel Project – along with Not on Our Watch, the Enough Project, Google, the United Nations UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and Trellon, LLC—by calling on young people to help deter violence in Sudan, and send a loud message: “the world is watching.”
On January 9, 2011, southern Sudan will begin a week-long vote on independence from the rest of the country and analysts have warned that this could plunge the country back into civil war.  Starting today, MTV and mtvU will promote the Satellite Sentinel Project across an array of on-air and online properties, encouraging young people to become peace monitors, inform their friends of the latest happenings in Sudan and be prepared to mobilize support should violence emerge.  Specific calls to action can be found at Sudan.mtvU.com.

“Satellite Sentinel Project welcomes MTV and its viewers—who have been standing up for years to end human rights crimes in Darfur and southern Sudan—to our early warning system team,” said George Clooney, who initiated the project. “Frankly, our team of policy wonks and super nerds could use an injection of MTV style.”

In order to generate rapid responses to human rights concerns, the Satellite Sentinel Project combines satellite imagery analysis, field reports and crowd-sourced map data from Google Map Maker to
prevent violence, and focuses world attention on Sudan.  The project uses commercial satellites passing over the border of northern and southern Sudan to capture possible threats to civilians, observe the movement of displaced people, detect bombed and razed villages, or note other evidence of pending mass violence. To become part of the open-source, early warning system for Sudan, young people can follow the Satellite Sentinel Project on Twitter @SudanSentinel. By doing this, they’ll get the latest updates and action alerts, and be ready to help put pressure on public officials to respond, if necessary.

“We know the Millennial generation is fearless, and that they strongly believe in their power to affect change,” said Stephen Friedman, General Manager of MTV.  “We’re proud to act as a megaphone for the Satellite Sentinel Project’s efforts, amplifying their message to young people so they can join forces with the world to help maintain peace in Sudan during this potentially volatile moment in history.”

Through mtvU, MTV has a history of partnering with its audience to generate awareness and take action on issues affecting Sudan.  In 2006, as part of mtvU’s Sudan campaign to empower college students with tools to fight genocide in Darfur, the network launched “Darfur is Dying.”  In this narrative-based simulation, the user, from the perspective of a displaced Darfurian, negotiates forces that threaten the survival of his or her refugee camp.  To date, the game has been played more than 3.9 million times by over 2 million players, and led to over 50,000 actions taken, including emailing the president, petitioning local representatives for legislation supporting Darfur, and learning how to start a divestment movement on campus.

The Satellite Sentinel Project marks the first sustained, public effort to systematically monitor and report on potential hotspots and threats to security along a border, in near real-time (within 24-36 hours), with the aim of heading off humanitarian disaster and human rights crimes before they occur. The Satellite Sentinel Project is available at http://www.satsentinel.org. The project’s funder, Not On Our Watch—co-founded by Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman, and Jerry Weintraub—focuses global attention and resources toward putting an end to mass atrocities around the world.

For more information or ways to take action, please head to Sudan.mtvU.com or http://www.satsentinel.org.

George Clooney responds to news reports of breakup

As media are reporting that George Clooney has broken up with model Elisabetta Canalis, Clooney has sent out a statement debunking the reports.

Clooney said in the statement, “”Once again the story is made up, spread to other outlets and now denied. But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.”

Fantastic Mr. Fox (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is absolutely fantastic and you’ll definitely enjoy every scene and detail of this stop-animation film in high definition on Blu-ray!  Definitely recommended!

© 2009 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Fantastic Mr. Fox

DURATION: 87 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Widescreen: 1:85: 1, AVC @ 22MBPS, English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish, French, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin

COMPANY: Twentieth Century Fox

RATED: PG (Action, Smoking and Slang Humor)

RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2010

Based on the novel by Roald Dahl

Directed by Wes Anderson

Screenplay by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach

Executive Producer: Armon Milchan, Sten M. Rales

Producer: Allison Abbate, Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Scott Rudin

Co-Producer: Molly Cooper

Line Producer: Simon Quinn

Music by Alexandre Desplat

Cinematography by Tristan Oliver

Edited by Andrew Weisblum

Production Design by Nelson Lowry

Art Direction by Francesca Berlingieri Maxwell

Featuring the voices of:

George Clooney as Mr. Fox

Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox

Jason Schwartzman as Ash

Eric Chase Anderson as Kristofferson Silverfox

Bill Murray as Badger

Wilem Dafoe as Rat

Owen Wilson as Coach Skip

Adrien Brody as Rickity the Field Mouse

Wallace Wolodarksy as Kylie

Academy Award-winning Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney (Up In The Air) and Meryl Streep (It’s Complicated) lend their voices to the hilarious, heartwarming and dazzling stop-motion animated adventure from visionary director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenebaums) Fantastic Mr. Fox, arriving as a Blu-ray Disc/DVD Combo Pack and on DVD March 23 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. In there-imagined classic family tale, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) live a happy home life with their eccentric son Ash (Jason Schwartzman: The Darjeeling Limited) and visiting nephew Kristopherson. That is until Mr. Fox slips into his sneaky, old ways and plots the greatest heist the animal world has ever seen. When mean old farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean join forces to surround Mr. Fox and his family, they don’t realize they are not dealing with any old fox – it’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and he has a fantastic master plan to save the day!

Roald Dahl, a British novelist who introduced us to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “James and the Giant Peach”, “Matilda”, “The Witches” and “The BFG” and many other books that have entertained generations.  And in 1970, Dahl wrote the children’s novel “Fantastic Mr. Fox” which would receive an adaptation into a feature animated film  co-written and directed by Wes Anderson (“Rushmore”, “The Royal Tenenbaums”, “The Darjeeling Limited”) and co-writer Noah Baumbach (“The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”, “Margot at the Wedding”, “Kicking and Screaming”).

The development for “Fantastic Mr. Fox” began in 2004 and was released in theaters in 2009.  What made the film quite unique is that it’s a Wes Anderson animated film and also a film that utilizes stop-motion animation and a first for 20th Century Fox.

The film was released in October 2009 and made over $41 million in the box office and nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature” and “Best Original Score”.  And now, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” will receive its first Blu-ray and DVD release.  The Blu-ray release will include a DVD and also a digital copy of the film.

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a film that begins with Fox (voiced by George Clooney) and his girlfriend Felicity killing and stealing squab.  Due to his girlfriend being pregnant and the fact that the two were caught stealing, Fox made a promise that if they were to survive their ordeal, he would quit and find a safer job.

Fast forward two years later, Mr. Fox and Mrs. Fox (voiced by Meryl Streep) have a son named Ash (voiced by Jason Schwartzman).  Mr. Fox is now a newspaper columnist and unhappy about his current lifestyle and living in a hole.   He wants a better home but Mrs. Fox has no problem where they are living at.   As for Mr. Fox’s son, Ash is a son who is not as gifted as his father and can be seen as a little weird as he likes to sport unusual clothing including a cape.

One day, Mr. Fox decides to purchase a home inside a tree, despite warning from his lawyer, Badger (voiced by Bill Murray).  Part of the reason why Fox wanted the home is that he could be close to large corporate facilities owned by farmers Walter Boggis (owns a chicken/squaw farm), Nathan Bunce (owns a duck and geese farm) and Franklin Bean (owns a turkey, apples and cider farm).

The whole family packs up and moves to their new home while Mrs. Fox’s nephew Kristofferson (voiced by Eric Chase Anderson) comes to live with them because of his father’s illness.  But immediately, Mr. Fox sees how Kristofferson is gifted with athletic ability like himself (and unlike his son) and also Kristofferson becomes quite popular at the school.  This causes Ash to become very jealous of his cousin because he does not have the same athletic skills but most importantly, his father seems to have more interest in Kristofferson than him.   Thus Ash treats his cousin quite badly.

Meanwhile, we learn of Mr. Fox’s main motivation of moving to the tree and near the corporations.  He is missing his old self and the ability to infiltrate, kill his food and steal.  Thus immediately, Mr. Fox and his friend Kylie (voiced by Wallace Wolodarsky) along with an unwilling Kristofferson begin infiltrating and stealing from the farms successfully.   But each of the farmers have had enough and will now do anything it takes to capture or kill Mr. Fox.

What became a fun getaway from Mr. Fox can now lead to the demise of his family and friends.  How will the fantastic Mr. Fox get out of this predicament?

VIDEO:

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is presented in 1080p (widescreen 1:85:1).  One thing that is important to emphasize that this is a stop-motion animated film.  So, for those who are wondering why the animation is not as fluid as a Pixar film, that is because this whole film is based on miniature models and an unthinkable amount of photographic images to create an animated film.

With that being said, I have to say that I was blown away by how beautiful this film is.  I didn’t realize how much went into this film until I saw the special features because I knew it was stop animation but for something to look this good, I figured there was plenty of CGI-animation incorporated.  But learning that every furnishing, every scenery was handmade and painted, each of the characters were about two feet miniatures and highly detailed was absolutely amazing. Great cinematography by Tristan Oliver (who has worked in several “Wallace & Gromit” films).

The Blu-ray brings out the detail of the work of the staff as the fur of the characters come out in such glorious detail, the eyes of the characters/puppets to the detail of the ground and the tree.  Absolutely fantastic work and very much appreciated through HD as detail is clear and reds, oranges and browns and various earthtone colors really showcase the vibrancy of the film.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is presented in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish, French and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital.  Although the majority of the film is dialogue and musically driven, there are sequences that begin midway from the film that begins to incorporate more action sequences and sound effects.  Dialogue is crystal clear and understandable, music also comes out quite nicely through the front channels and then the moments of destruction from the humans towards Mr. Fox’s home and living areas are well demonstrated throughout the surround channels and even utilizing LFE.

Lossless audio is very well done and although not an aggressive soundtrack, a still a solid lossless audio presentation for the film.  And also, what an an interesting but fun music soundtrack with The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Burl Ives and other artists featured in the film and wonderful music by Alexandre Desplat (who did a wonderful job with “Julie & Julia”, “Cheri”, “Coco Avant Chanel”, etc).

Subtitles are presented in English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” comes with the following special features:

• Making Mr. Fox Fantastic – A fantastic documentary on the making of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” which you can play all or watch the following featurettes separately:  The Look of Fantastic Mr. Fox (8:12), From Script to Screen (7:00), The Puppet Makers (8:19), Still Life (Puppet Animation) (7:23), Cast (6:32), Bill and His Badger (7:37).  I loved the featurettes included in this segment and how it shows the crew creating wonderful miniatures of Dahl’s work from furnishings to even the silverware and animating the puppets.
• A Beginner’s Guide to Whack Bat – (1:12) A brief guide to the sport of Whack Bat.
• Fantastic Mr. Fox – The World of Roald Dahl - (2:58) A short featurette about using the Dahl house as an inspiration of ideas in creating the miniature sets for the film.  Mrs. Dahl talks about how the filmmakers did a wonderful job in capturing Roald’s ideas for “Fantastic Mr. Fox”.
• Theatrical Trailer - (2:25) The original theatrical trailer

EXTRAS:

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” includes a DVD of the film presented in Widescreen (1:85:1), audio in English 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround and Subtitles in English SDH, Spanish and French.  Also, included is a digital copy of the film.

I really enjoyed “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and after watching this Blu-ray release, just in awe of how much hard work, creativity and detail went into creating this film.  As mentioned, I thought there was a lot of CGI implemented in this film but to find out everything was literally handcrafted was amazing.

Wes Anderson is a wonderful director and the fact that you have major talent involved in this film from George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and many others along with a talented crew to create this stop-animation film and make it come to life is quite impressive. The characters and the world of Mr. Fox just comes alive in this film and you can’t help but grin because the colors and the detail is just so striking on HD.  This film really looks fantastic on Blu-ray!

As for parents who wonder if they can show this film to their children, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is rated PG and with FOX’s being wild animals, they steal and kill their prey.  Granted, there is no blood shown but those are things that some parents may be concerned about.  There is one scene where a rat pulls out a knife and tries to kill Mr. Fox and continues again further in the story where he goes after Ash.  So, there are darker moments in the film.  So, definitely parental guidance is suggested.

There is nothing that I can really complain about the film.  I absolutely loved it!   You get a good amount of special features on the making of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and on top of the solid picture and audio quality, you also get a DVD and digital copy of the film.

Overall, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a wonderful animated film that may be more appreciated by teenagers and adults than children but this Blu-ray is most definitely recommended!

UP IN THE AIR – ON BLU-RAY & DVD 3/9/10

Nominated for Six Academy Awards® Including Best Picture and Best Actor
ACADEMY AWARD WINNER* GEORGE CLOONEY STARS IN
THE MOST CELEBRATED ROMANTIC COMEDY OF THE YEAR
UP IN THE AIR
Cited As One of the Top Ten Movies of the Year on Over 200 Critics’ Lists,
Captivating and Entertaining Film Takes Off on DVD and Blu-ray March 9, 2010

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Academy Award® winner George Clooney “gives the performance of his career” (Lou Lumenick, New York Post) in the smart, funny and thought-provoking film UP IN THE AIR coming in for a landing on DVD and Blu-ray March 9, 2010 from Paramount Home Entertainment. Called “the movie of the year, the movie of the moment” (Tom Carson, GQ) and named by over 200 critics as one of the top 10 films of 2009, UP IN THE AIR tells the story of a man discovering that life is not simply about the journey alone, but about the personal connections made along the way.
Co-written and directed by Oscar® nominee Jason Reitman (Juno),

UP IN THE AIR received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor (Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film has already won a Golden Globe® Award for Best Screenplay and dozens of critics’ association awards including being named Best Film by the National Board of Review, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, the Florida Film Critics Circle and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle.
The UP IN THE AIR DVD and Blu-ray presentations include commentary by writer/director Jason Reitman, director of photography Eric Steelberg and first assistant director Jason Blumenfeld, deleted scenes with optional commentary and the featurette “Shadowplay: Before The Story”. The Blu-ray also includes additional deleted scenes, storyboards, an American Airlines prank and the “Help Yourself” music video by Sad Brad.

UP IN THE AIR DVD & Blu-ray

The UP IN THE AIR DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The Blu-ray disc is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and Brazilian Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. The DVD includes the following special features:
Commentary by writer/director Jason Reitman, director of photography Eric Steelberg and first assistant director
Jason Blumenfeld
Shadowplay: Before The Story
Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Jason Reitman
To Know Me Is To Fly With Me
Real People Firing and Irate Employee
Thumper and Extended Boat Scene
Omaha Montage
Spacesuit
Trailers

The Blu-ray includes all of the above in high definition, plus:

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Jason Reitman (HD)
Do You Live At The Hilton?
Nosey Neighbor
Natalie In Restroom
Natalie Vid-Chats
Angry Ryan Checks In
Goalquest Invite
Maynard Finch Commercial/Kara Calls Ryan
Barely Squeaking By/Natalie Calls
“Help Yourself” music video by Sad Brad (HD)
Storyboards (HD)
American Airlines Prank (HD)

The critically acclaimed soundtrack to UP IN THE AIR is available now from Rhino and includes the riveting “Help Yourself” from Sad Brad Smith as well as tracks from Elliot Smith, Dan Auerbach, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

About Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. PPC is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. PHE is responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Paramount Famous Productions, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS and PBS and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.

George Clooney and Vera Farmiga at the premiere of “Up in the Air” in Westwood, CA

Actor George Clooney (L) and actress Vera Farmiga arrive at the premiere of Paramount Pictures’ ‘Up In The Air’ held at Mann Village Theatre on November 30, 2009 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images). Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved.

George Clooney and Bill Murray attend a photocall for “Fantastic Mr Fox” at the Times BFI London Film Festival

L-R George Clooney and Bill Murray attend a photocall for Fantastic Mr Fox during the The Times BFI London Film Festival held at The Dorchester Hotel on October 14, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images). Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Ewan McGregor and George Clooney attends the ‘The Man Who Stare At Goats’ photocall at the 66th Venice Film Festival

VENICE, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 08: (Left to Right) Actors Ewan McGregor and George Clooney attends the ‘The Man Who Stare At Goats’ photocall at the Palazzo del Casino during the 66th Venice Film Festival on September 8, 2009 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Content © 2009 Getty Images . All rights reserved.

Three Kings (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

BUY THIS DVD

MOVIE COMPANY: WARNER BROS. in assoc. with VILLAGE ROADSHOW PICTURES/VILLAGE-A.M.PARTNERSHIP
CAST: Starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn, Jamie Kennedy, Mykelti Williamson, Cliff Curtis, Said Taghmaoui
DIRECTED BY: Directed by David O. Russell
PRODUCED BY: Charles Roven, Paul Junger Witt, Edward L. Mcdonnell
RATING: Rated R
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120188
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama, comedy, action, war

Absurdly comic, highly kinetic, at times shockingly emotional, Three Kings begins when the Gulf War is over.  Amid the partying and confusion, four American soldiers (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze), determined to take home more than sand fleas, go off into the Iraqi desert to find millions in stolen Kuwaiti bullion.  They are plunged into the heart of a democratic uprising that spins the day and their lives out of control.  David O. Russell’s unique tapestry of humor, violence and history makes Three Kings “one of the best movies of the year.” (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen, AC-3
• Commentary by director David O. Russell
• Commentary by producers Chuck Roven and Ed McDonnell
• Theatrical trailer(s)
• Under the Bunker: On The Set Of Three Kings Making-Of Documentary
• Deleted Footage With Commentary By Director David O. Russell
• Interview with Director of Photography Tom Sigel
• An Intimate Look Inside The Acting Process With Ice Cube
• plus!: David O. Russell’s Video Journal, Bunkers–Three Hidden Features (Two Bunkers Reveal Codes That Will Unlock Special Features On The Web, And One Bunker Will Unlock A TV Spot), Production Designer’s Tour of the Iraqi Village Set, Production Stills, Special Photography From Co-star Spike Jonz (Director Of Being John Malkovich) DVD-ROM Content–Links To CNN’s Gulf War Archives, Special Web Events, Including To-Be-Announced Online Screenings And Chats With Filmmaker/Stars
• Widescreen anamorphic format

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): I found two.  One for the TV previews and one for the website:

Go to the Special Features menu,  then go to Production Notes and then go to origins.  Go up and down with your remote and you will see a red grenade and you can see the “THREE KINGS” TV spot.

Go to the Special Features menu, then go to the Cast & Crew menu. Press around and you’ll see the grenade and click on that and you will receive the password SCUD. The second one is located also in the special features menu but go to the third menu near the Internet URL and you will see a grenade under it and you will be given the password BAGHDAD.

DVD REVIEW:

Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!  Awesome!

I really enjoyed this movie!  OK, it’s not exactly a “true to real life” movie but it’s very entertaining!  When I first watched the movie trailer, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it and so I didn’t see it.  After hearing how awesome the movie is and many months later, I saw the movie and I’m really impressed.

The storyline, the sound, the way the directors shot the movie and the dedication to make this movie…truly awesome!  If there was any negative, I couldn’t find one, unless you are expecting a war movie which this is not.

I’m not going to go into why the movie was shot the way it is, the extras well answer that question for you.

So, the video and audio gets high marks but what about the DVD itself?  Any extras?  Well, Warner Bros. did fans a service and loaded, I mean LOADED this DVD with many extras.

So, in the end, this DVD is one of the better made DVD’s around.  Great video, great sound and many extras to keep you busy.  It doesn’t have the collector’s edition or special edition logo attached to front cover of the case but it should because this DVD is truly special.  This DVD is highly recommended!

THE MOVIE:  A
THE DVD EXTRAS:  A+
THE DVD OVERALL:  A

The Perfect Storm (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

BUY THIS DVD

CAST: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, William Fichtner and more.
DIRECTED BY: Wolfgang Petersen
WRITTEN BY: Sebastian Junger, William D. Wittliff
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0177971
TYPE OF MOVIE: Thriller, Adventure, Action, Drama
DURATION: 129 minutes

In the Fall of 1991, the “Andrea Gail” left Gloucester, Mass. and headed for the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic. Two weeks later, an event took place that had never occurred in recorded history.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Warner and Columbia have recently added a Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE) to Region 1 titles like the The Patriot and The Perfect Storm. Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called “region-free” DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, Surround Sound, Digital Sound
• Commentary by director Wolfgang Petersen
• Commentary by author Sebastian Junger
• Commentary by visual effects supervisor and producer Stefen Fangmeier and Helen Ostenberg Elswit
• Behind the Scenes Documentaries HBO First Look: The Perfect Storm and Witness to the Storm
• Conceptual Art Gallery, Commentary by Petersen
• Yours Forever Photo Montage
• Storyboard Gallery
• Widescreen anamorphic format

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None that I know of

DVD REVIEW:

This tragic story of a group of fishermen who are caught in the middle of three storms that has never occurred in recorded history is a slow pace movie but in the last half of the movie gets better and better and then you are left wondering, like Titanic which you knew how the story ended, the movie affected the viewer.  Would “The Perfect Storm” do the same?

Having the popular Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One, Dat Boot) and our two actors from “Three Kings” would make a great movie right?  Well, unfortunately the director and the actors aren’t the problem.  So, would “The Perfect Storm” grab your attention and make you feel for the characters?

Perhaps not but the visuals of this movie and what Hollywood can do to make this movie give you the feeling that these souls were in the middle of the ocean is awesome!  If anything the first half wants you to feel for the characters and then the second half wants you to see how these characters will meet there doom.  For me, watching the special effects and the challenges that they faced was intriguing but the characters and certain parts of the plot were uninteresting.  In the first half, I kept looking at the clock and that’s not good.

The DVD had very good and no artifacts.  The audio is Digital 5.1 EX and the waves come crashing all around you which is awesome.  Now at first glance when looking at the special features you may think there is just one but when clicking on the “Eye of the Storm” you realize…whoah!  This DVD is packed with cool stuff such as three commentaries, an HBO documentary, featurettes, trailer and more.

If you enjoyed the movie or thinking about getting into commercial fishing, then this movie may be perfect for you.  Otherwise I think it’s a rental.

THE MOVIE: C+
THE DVD EXTRAS: A-
THE DVD OVERALL: B