Layer Cake

This is a brilliant transfer of an intricate and multi-layered (almost noir-ish, save for the color) gangster flick. Most of the characters turn out to be thoroughly despicable, and what else would you expect given their love of power or being close to those in power? The only innocent here is the (unnamed) character played by Daniel Craig, who is more of an MBA type on a get-rich-quick venture in cocaine dealing, with a system beautifully explained in the opening minutes of the film. It is also a genuinely nasty bit of work, which (technical deftness aside) you may find leaves a merde-ish aftertaste. (You’ll have to watch it twice to see how beautifully intricate all its moving parts are.) If you want to see a Sony Blu-ray transfer at its best, check out the second scene in which Craig and one of his henchmen are summoned to a haute cuisine lunch with Big Boss (whose wrinkled face alone, seen up close, shows the strength of the process). The uncompressed PCM sound is the way to go here. Like it or not, I think you’ll have to agree this is a small jewel of a movie. [Sony Pictures].
Price: $24.99

Pearl Harbor
I may be wrong about this, but I think this Michael Bay film was the first mastered to show the potential of the Blu-ray technology. It has the look, deliberately, I assume, of old-fashioned Technicolor that was appropriate to the “big� films back then, and is so beautifully that lit you might liken the cinematography to that of the original Gone With The Wind (but not one of that film’s so-called restorations). As for any relation to reality, this movie is strictly a 21st century boy-boy love story, with an attack sequence that seems interminable, and bad acting, particularly by Josh Hairnet (Hartnett, I know, I know), who seems deft only in the smiling Sequoia school of acting. The uncompressed PCM sound will either peel your wall paint or blow out the woofers. Me? I was, about half way through, bored into a state of divine silliness. Okay, so it wasn’t divine. . .[Walt Disney Video]. 
Price: $29.99

The Fifth Element (remastered)
This film has been used for demonstration purposes ever since it first appeared on DVD, and it has gone through nearly as many incarnations as a Tibetan monk, including an appearance on the arresting Superbit system, potentially the last word in DVD quality. And then, alack and against all expectations, its debut on Blu-ray wasn’t even as good as its first appearance on DVD, much less Superbit. I guess I have to say that the film has worn me down, or rather, I have worn down, given the spirit of our times as opposed to those a decade ago when it first hit these shores. I don’t find Chris Tucker’s flamboyant queenliness and roll-your-eyes Fetchit-isms quite so intolerable. To the contrary, the movie’s strength lies in the sections aboard the outer space hotel, where the action and the music are, well, out of this world. The rest of the movie is undistilled junk (though not its central core). And it is has been, in the remastering, done some sort of justice. Finally. [Sony Pictures]
Price: $24.99

Happy Feet
No doubt about it, this is the disc in which Blu-ray’s visual superiority stomps its HD DVD equivalent. Indeed, it is the most flawless of the Blu-ray transfers—visually, that is. The picture has a continuousness that lends a strong three-dimensional effect (even better in this regard than the well-processed Monster House, which was shown in 3-D theatrically). It is so seamless looking, so perfectly defined, without any outlining or edginess, that I would bet it looks better here than on a big screen. But sonically, while the Dolby 5.1 is quite good, it suffers compared with the uncompressed PCM sound on the Toshiba mastering. If you want to see why the film is breathtaking in its look, try the last 30 minutes or so first. (For you technophiles, it is encoded using the VC-1 system, to me the better-looking compression system than either Sony’s usually chosen MPEG-2 or -4.) If Blu-ray discs continue to look this good, then I’m sold. That said, Happy Feet itself, while miraculous in its use of animation—who knew it could so “real� looking—is not, for its first half or so, any more than a trifle. Little guy grows up being made to feel “different� because he can dance, while the other penguins, incredibly, aren’t different because they “sing.� So naturally he winds up dancing in New York to fame and fortune and, finally, acceptance back home. I think we can all read between the lines here. [Warner Home Entertainment]   
Price: $29.99

Casino Royale
Sony pulled out the stops on this one. Given its enormous success at the box office and the rejuvenating of the whole James Bond business, we can easily understand why Casino is a do-or-die showcase. As good as it is, I’m still not sure it’s the equal of Sony’s other Daniel Craig movie (the aforementioned Layer Cake) but the difference is narrow and may just lie in the way the film was photographed. You sure can’t argue that the opening chase isn’t spectacular—in reality, the bad guy is an expert in the French sport parkour who is being chased by Bond up, down, and over the skeletal structure of a building under construction. The resolution is so good here (better again, methinks, than what I saw in the theater) that you can easily tell when Craig’s stunt double is doing the pursuing. (The bad guy, Sebastien Foucan, is one of the founders of parkour and does not use a double.) The movie is worth it for this sequence alone. If that doesn’t get you, then check out the sound—preferably in the uncompressed PCM—when an entire villa sinks into the canals of Venice. Oh yes, Craig is a quite different Bond, and a much better one than the sissified Bonds of years past; in their place, a compact runt of a tough guy.[Sony Pictures]  
Price: $29.99