Liv Tyler at the Stella McCartney Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2011 in Paris

Liv Tyler arrives for the Stella McCartney Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2011 show during Paris Fashion Week at Opera Garnier on October 4, 2010 in Paris, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)
Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Photos from Day Two of Comic-Con International 2010 in San Diego

It’s day two of Comic-Con International 2009 in San Diego and this event keeps surpassing itself year by year!

In day two, Anna Paquin and fellow cast members of HBO’s “True Blood” rocked the audience with their panel and autograph signing; Will Ferrell joined Mark Wahlberg and Eva Mendez for “The Other Guy” panel; Actresses Elizabeth Mitchell, Anna Torv, Jena Malone, Ellen Wong, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead attended the ‘Girls That Kick Ass: A New Generation Of Heroines’ panel; Olivia Munn promoted her new book; Seth Rogen promoted “The Green Hornet” at his panel; Paul Bettany and Maggie Q promoted “Priest”; Alessandra Torresani promoted Caprica; the stars of “Stargate Universal” promoted their show; the stars of “Hawaii Five-0″ promoted their new drama series at their panel and celebrities attended the Rock Star Media Lounge featuring The Hollywood Reporter and Yowie.com. And photos from many, many more celeb events throughout the day!

Stella McCartney, Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler at the opening of the ‘American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity’ exhibition in NYC

Designer Stella McCartney, actress Kate Hudson and actress Liv Tyler attend the Costume Institute Gala Benefit to celebrate the opening of the ‘American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity’ exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 3, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Armageddon (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Over a decade later and “Armageddon” is a film that just shines on Blu-ray.  Gorgeous visuals, immersive lossless audio… I was definitely impressed!  But if you are a owner of the original Criterion Collection DVD release, you may not want to discard it just yet as this Blu-ray release skimps on the special features.

Image courtesy of © WDSHE. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Armageddon

DURATION: 151 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:35:1 Widescreen), English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (48 kHz, 24-bit), Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish

COMPANY: Touchstone Pictures

RATED: PG-13 (For Sci-Fi Disaster Action, Sensuality and Brief Language)

RELEASE DATE: April 27, 2010

Directed by Michael Bay

Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, J.J. Abrams

Adaptation by Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno

Story by Robert Roy Pool and Jonathan Hensleigh

Music by Trevor Rabin

Cinematography by John Schwartzman

Edited by Mark Goldblatt, Chris Lebenzon, Glen Scantlebury

Casting by Bonnie Timmermann

Production Design by Michael White

Art Direction by Geoff Hubbard, Lawrence A. Hubbs, Bruton Jones

Set Decoration by Rick Simpson

Costume Design by Magali Guidasci, Michael Kaplan

Starring:

Bruce Willis as Harry Stamper

Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman

Ben Affleck as A.J. Frost

Liv Tyler as Grace Stamper

Will Patton as Grace Stamper

Will Patton as Chick

Steve Buscemi as Rockhound

William Fichtner as Colonel Willie Sharp

Owen Wilson as Oscar

Michael Clarke Duncan as Bear

Peter Stormare as Lev Andropov

Ken Hudson Campbell as Max

Jessica Steen as Co-Pilot Jennifer Watts

Keith David as General Kimsey

Chris Ellis as Flight Director Clark

Jason Isaacs as Ronald Quincy

Grayson McCouch as Gruber

Clark HEathcliffe Brolly as Noonan

Marshall R. Teague as Colonel Davis

Anthony Guidera as Co-Pilot Tucker

Greg Collins as Halsey

J. Patrick McCormack as General Boffer

Ian Quinn as Astronaut Pete Shelby

From the blockbuster-making team who produced and directed Pearl Harbor and The Rock (Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay) comes Armageddon, available for the first time on Blu-ray™ High- Definition! Starring the explosive talents of Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Will Patton, Armageddon is a meteor storm of action adventure moviemaking that has you on the edge of your seat forgetting to breathe! When NASA’s executive director, Dan Truman (Thornton), realizes the Earth has 18 days before it’s obliterated by a
meteor the size of Texas, he has only one option – land a ragtag team of roughneck oil drillers on the asteroid and drop a nuclear warhead into its core. Spectacular special effects, laugh-out-loud humor,
great characters, riveting storytelling, and heartfelt emotion make Armageddon an exhilarating thrill ride you’ll want to experience like there’s no tomorrow!

In 1998, the summer blockbuster “Armageddon” from director Michael Bay (“Transformers”, “The Rock”, “Pearl Harbor”) featuring a screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh (“Die Hard: With a Vengeance”, “The Punisher”, “Next”) and J.J. Abrams (“LOST”, “Star Trek”, “Cloverfield”)  became a tremendous success in the box office.   Making over $553 million worldwide, the film was loved by viewers despite being panned by film critics.

Starring Bruce Willis  (“Die Hard” films, “Surrogates”, “Lucky Number Slevin”), Billy Bob Thornton (“Sling Blade”, “Monster’s Ball”, “Friday Night Lights”) and Steve Buscemi (“Pulp Fiction”, “Desperado”, “Fargo”),  “Armageddon” would launch the careers of many talent such as Ben Affleck (“Good Will Hunting”, “Chasing Amy”, “Pearl Harbor”), Liv Tyler (“Lord of the Rings” films, “The Incredible Hulk”), Owen Wilson (“Bottle Rocket”, “Marley & Me”, “Drillbit Taylor”), and Michael Clarke Duncan (“The Green Mile”, “The Whole Nine Yards”, “Daredevil”).  The film would also star a good number of talents such as William Fichtner, Will Patton, Keith David, Peter Stormare, Ken Hudson Campbell and many more.

“Armageddon” was previously released as a standalone DVD which was then followed up by a director’s cut (featuring two minutes extra footage), special features heavy DVD release from the Criterion Collection and over a decade later, we are treated with an HD version of the film on Blu-ray.

“Armageddon” revolves around an asteroid (the size of Texas) which hurling towards Earth in 18 days. Several smaller asteroids have bypassed Earth’s atmosphere and have caused destruction in various cities worldwide.  But this huge asteroid and its collision on Earth can easily destroy humanity.

The only option that NASA can give is by detonating a nuclear bomb inside the asteroid (800 feet deep) and splitting it into two and hoping that the asteroid will miss Earth.  And the only one with the expertise to drill that deep is offshore oil driller Harry Stamper (played by Bruce Willis) and his crew which include A.J. (played by Ben Affleck) who has a secret relationship with Grace (played by Liv Tyler), the daughter of Harry.  A.J. has  a problem of taking orders and the fact that he was secretly dating Grace does not put him in the best position with Harry.

The US government and NASA depend on Harry and his crew which includes Chick (played by Will Patton), Rockhound (played by Steve Buscemi), Oscar (played by Owen Wilson), Bear (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), Max (played by Ken Hudson Campbell), Noonan (played by Clark Heathcliffe Brolly) and a few others including the NASA pilots to prepare for the drilling on the asteroid. NASA head Dan Truman (played by Billy Bob Thornton) is the person responsible in making sure they are trained quickly and also responsible in leading the NASA operation on Earth.

Earth’s survival depends on these individuals.  Can they get to their location, drill 800 feet and detonate the bomb in time?

VIDEO:

Having owned the previous releases of “Armageddon”, I can easily tell you that “Armageddon” looks absolutely awesome on Blu-ray!  “Armageddon” is presented in 1080p High Definition (2:35:1) with colors that are vibrant and a film that sports many colors that simply, I was impressed by the picture quality.  Granted, some video stock footage will look slightly dated but those sequences are very short and if anything, your eyes are just in awe of how awesome and colorful this film is.  From the detail of the character’s skin to the lighting inside NASA as we see the lighting on the characters from green, to blue and of course the overall look of the asteroid and special effects are still wonderful to look at.  Over 12-years-later and the film manages to hold up extremely well!  Strong contrast, solid backs and I don’t recall seeing any major compression, edge enhancement or DNR.

So, for those who loved the film and were so upset with the non-Anamorphic release back in 1999, fortunately we have a 1080p (2:35:1) version of the film and also a version that just looks absolutely fantastic on Blu-ray.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Armageddon” is absolutely immersive.  The film features an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (48 kHz/24-bit) and Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack.  But as you can expect from a Michael Bay film, he manages to utilize audio and in this film, with all the action, you can expect an immersive audio soundscape.  There are just so many times throughout the film where you hear the audio coming from the fronts, especially from the surround channels but then you can also detect LFE throughout.

Needless to say, when the Criterion Collection DVD release of “Armageddon” was released in 1999, a lot of us who reviewed the film were going crazy about how awesome the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was but after listening to this lossless soundtrack, I was absolutely floored.  “Armageddon” is a film that truly belongs on HD and the soundtrack is just impressive!

Subtitles are presented in English SDH, French and Spanish.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

This is probably where “Armageddon” on Blu-ray is not too awesome.  As the first DVD release was barebones, the Criterion Collection had audio commentary tracks, gag reel, production gallery, featurettes and many, many more special features.  Needless to say, the Criterion Collection version was truly a complete package when it was released in 1999 but in 2010, the Blu-ray Touchstone Pictures release, while not barebones, has very few special features.  Included are:

• Aerosmith’s MTV Award-Winning Music Video “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”
• Theatrical Trailer
• Teaser Trailer
  

I know that many critics and reviewers have a problem with Michael Bay films but I love sci-fi action films, I love being entertained by films that feature continuous action and Michael Bay is a master of it.  Granted, when I watch a Michael Bay film, for me “Armageddon” is a popcorn action flick in which I expect nothing deep, nothing too intellectual and when it comes to disaster films, you want to see devastation and see humanity overcome all obstacles.

“Armageddon” was a film that I really enjoyed when it was first released and had the opportunity to review the original DVD, the Criterion Collection release and now this Blu-ray release.

Needless to say, the biggest question that fans of the film are going to ask is if this release is worth it and whether or not they should toss away their DVD versions of the film.  Well, for one, if you have the original barebones release, yeah, you can trade or sell that one online but if you have the Criterion Collection DVD release, you definitely will want to hold on to that release as those special features are probably not going to be seen in any future “Armageddon” release in quite some time.

But when it comes to picture quality and audio quality, this Blu-ray release of “Armageddon” is fantastic.  The Criterion Collection release was not anamorphic and it was a release before the current remastering that Criterion Collection is known for in recent releases.  So, Disney who have been releasing awesome Blu-ray releases have done fans a great service by giving us awesome picture quality and fantastic lossless audio.  Sure, I would have loved a English 7.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack but this 5.1 lossless soundtrack definitely brings this film to a new level.

I was comparing the Blu-ray release with the DVD releases that I had and it was like night and day in terms of PQ and AQ, this is definitely the definitive version of “Armageddon” to own.  But because those Criterion Collection special features are not included on this Blu-ray, it definitely knocks a point off this Blu-ray release.  I was a bit surprised not to see the commentary, gag reel and other featurettes were not included in this release and its a shame that Disney didn’t include it on this release.  So, if you do own the Criterion Collection DVD release and enjoy the film, you may not want to get rid of your copy.

Overall, “Armageddon” is a film that has its share of fans who love it and those who hate it and that can be said about many disaster films that have come out since the early ’70s.  I personally enjoy these type of films and the better the special effects, the better the film holds up overtime and granted, they may be farfetched (“Armageddon” is used as an actual training management program at NASA in which managers must find out how many inaccuracies the film contains) but for viewers, when it comes to these films, these are perfect “get-away” popcorn flicks.  Something that Michael Bay, J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Hensleigh are very good at with their films.

But if you are a fan who really enjoyed this film, “Armageddon” on Blu-ray in terms of film presentation (PQ & AQ) is highly recommended!

reign over me (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

BUY THIS DVD

MOVIE COMPANY: SONY PICTURES
CAST: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland
DIRECTED & WRITTEN BY: Mike Binder
RATING: Rated R
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490204/
TYPE OF MOVIE: Drama
DURATION: 124 minutes

Adam Sandler Don Cheadle Jada Pinkett Smith and Liv Tyler star in this heart-rending story about Charlie Fineman (Sandler) who has slipped away from reality after the sudden loss of his wife and children. But Charlie s life takes a turn for the better when he runs into his old college roommate Alan Johnson (Cheadle) whose life is torn between the demands of career and family. Their renewed friendship rekindles their long-forgotten bond and both men emerge enriched and enlightened.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Behind the reign: the making of reign over me
• Extended jam session with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle
• A still reign: photographic montage.

DVD REVIEW:

An emotional and power film about a physician named Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) who runs into his college roommate, Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), who has changed for the worse since Sept. 11.

Alan feels the need to help his friend who seems to be emotionally unstable and all he does is play video games, redoes the kitchen over and over and plays music.  Literally unemployed and has isolated himself from everyone.

As for Alan, he owns his own medical practice but his fellow physicians tend to keep him out of the circle and because of work and obligations to family, hasn’t really enjoyed his life.

That is until he meets Charlie and wants to connect with him and to see why he has become the way he is and possibly rekindle the friendship.

I have to admit that I was not sure about the film.  Don Cheadle is a fine actor but to have Adam Sandler play a serious role, after watching all his comedy films, wasn’t sure where this one would be going.  But amazingly, Sandler does a good job playing Charlie Fineman, who is reminscent of Dustin Hoffmany’s character of Raymond Babbitt of “Rain Man” but with much more paranoia, depression and anger.  But more strongly, his guilt over the loss of his wife and daughter that constantly replays in his mind over and over again.

Charlie is literally paranoid that Alan is spying on him and it comes to the point where Charlie almost becomes an annoyance to Alan and his family because he keeps showing up and wanting to do things that Alan is not used to doing.  Even in one scene where Charlie just loses it and destroys Alan’s waiting room.

But what I found most touching about the film is that there are many documentaries but not many films that deal with the families or love ones left behind after their significant other or family was killed on Sept. 11th.

Once Charlie finally opens up to Alan about the feelings he has kept suppressed within himself, you can’t just help but cry and know that probably in reality, there are many more people like him who are unable to let go or not ready to talk about their emotions.

Jada Pinkett Smith who plays Janeane Johnson plays a concerned wife of Alan.  Especially when he is spending all nighters playing videogames or doing something and not coming home.  And it definitely leads to a breaking point between Alan and Janeane where Alan, who also has emotions bottled up inside, has to let his emotions out.

Liv Tyler plays the character of Angela Oakhurst, a psychiatrist and friend of Alan who tries to help Charlie with his emotions.

The DVD comes with a few special features that include the two having to learn to play instruments and a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film.  Also, included is a photo montage.

I think Binder & staff did a good job in covering the New York landscape in their scouting locations.  Not showing too many things that are happy but keeping within the confines of the overall atmosphere of the movie.

As for the overall film, it’s touching, very emotional but it’s far from perfect.  We understand Charlie and why he is so emotional but for Alan’s character, he’s a doctor with a beautiful wife and good family, obviously making good money… but is his dilemma overwork?  Not satisfied about his life or his working partners?

Also, the things that Charlie does to Alan and how Alan just remains patient with him and forgives for everything, no matter how bad the situation maybe, definitely Alan has a good heart but how many people would be friends with a man who destroys your place of work or tries to pick a fight with you?

But nevertheless, despite its minimal problems, the movie comes together quite fine and in the end, I felt entertained, quite touched by the overall message in the film of how life so fragile.  All in all, a DVD worth checking out!

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

ARMAGEDDON – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #40 (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

TITLE: ARMAGEDDON – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #40

CAST: Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Billy Bob Thornton, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, Keith David and Steve Buscemi

DIRECTED BY:  Michael Bay

PRODUCED BY:  Jerry Bruckheimer, Gale Anne Hurd and Michael Bay

TYPE OF MOVIE: Action, Romance, Sci-Fi and Thriller

DURATION:  153 minutes

Bruce Willis and an all-star cast of roughneck oil drillers blast off on a mission to save the planet in Michael Day’s doomsday space epic.

DVD EXTRAS:

• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Criterion Collection, Widescreen, Dolby, Director’s Cut
• Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s)
• Michael Bay’s gag reel
• Deleted scenes, compiled by Michael Bay
• Storyboards and production design drawings
• Analysis of the special effects by visual effects supervisors Richard Hoover, Pat McClung and Hoyt Yeatman
• Music video “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith, plus interviews with the band
• Widescreen letterbox format
• Number of discs: 2

KNOWN DVD SECRET(S): None at this time

I’m so glad that a Criterion edition of “ARMAGEDDON” was released.   The story of a huge asteroid about to collide with Earth and a group of oil drillers and NASA to prevent that from happening, what more can you ask for right?

Well, all I can say is that if you do have one choice for this movie, the Criterion Collection is the way to go.

Yes, both movies have outstanding video and the digital 5.1 is used a lot in this movie.  But that’s where the comparisons end because the regular version of the DVD has no extras.  The Criterion Collection version is loaded with extras.  I mean fully loaded and each segment in the special features are quite long.  One of my favorites happens to be the gag reel.

Also, the movie contains trailers.  Oh, no…not the typical 1-3 trailers that DVD’s have, this one has many trailers.  I’m not sure how many trailers I counted for the 20-second or 10-second segment.  This DVD is loaded with them.

Then another cool thing about the DVD extras are how certain special effects were made.

So, yes, the Criterion Collection cost about $10 more but it is probably one of the best Criterion edition DVD’s out there.  This version of Armageddon is highly recommended!

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