Tuesday, February 19, should have been a great day for HD DVD fans because it marked the release of American Gangster. This movie was one of the bigger titles that would help shake us all out of the dry spell that begain weeks earlier. I was preparing to post this review then, but the news in the world of HD DVD was overshadowed by Toshiba’s announcement that they would discontinue their line of HD DVD players.

Since that day, many people have either decided to sell off their HD DVD players and movie collections, or keep them around while they bide their time until getting a Blu-ray player. People staying “red” in any way at all have at least a few months of interesting HD DVD titles ahead, and it’s movies like American Gangster that make it easier to put off that potentially inevitable Blu-ray adoption.

American Gangster has a ton of things going for it, and there’s little surprise that it’s such an eagerly awaited title on HD DVD. Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe star in this Ridley Scott directed movie about the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, a real-life 1970s Harlem druglord who outdid the Mafia, and Richie Roberts, the police officer who brought him down.

The scenes alternate between following Lucas’s rise to power and the establishment of his empire, and the parallel story about super ethical police officer Roberts facing his own issues in life, while he’s on the trail of an unknown criminal mastermind. Neither figure knows about the other until later in the movie, and you’re along for the ride as these two worlds literally crash into each other. (more…)

With all the other news happening this week, I got behind on a few movie reviews that have been waiting on the sidelines. We know that the absolute end is coming, but there are titles due over the next several weeks, and the release slate contains many titles of interest to HD DVD owners.

I’m writing this on the day of the Academy Awards and two recent HD DVD releases are among the numerous movies nominated for an Oscar. In this first piece, I want to talk about a disc that was released a couple of weeks ago.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
In 1998, the first Elizabeth movie garnered 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Cate Blanchett. In 2007, much of the same team reunited for the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Cate Blanchett has again been nominated for Best Actress for reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth I.

I like history, but I realize that most movies based on historic events or figures are usually going to bend the truth here and there in order to make the movie more interesting. Just as the first Elizabeth was chided for taking some liberties with historic details, so too has this sequel. If you can get past that, as I’m sure many North American viewers are likely to since we don’t spend a lot of time focussed on British history, then you can better appreciate the simplified themes highlighted from Queen Elizabeth’s life.

The tagline for the movie is “Woman, Warrior, Queen.” (more…)

The new year approaches, and people are probably still on vacation, especially the kids. It’s time for another family holiday review, and this time we turn our attention to Rowan Atkinson in Mr. Bean’s Holiday. This disc came out in late November so it’s still fairly new on HD DVD, and it’s also a movie that’s possibly playing in those dollar movie theaters in case you want (or need) to get everyone out of the house.

In this episode of the continuing saga of Mr. Bean, our hero has won a raffle ticket which sends him to France, fully equipped with a video camera to record his adventures. Those of you familiar with Mr. Bean can probably already think of at least a few ways that this goofball could get into trouble in a foreign country where he doesn’t speak the language, and Rowan Atkinson and the crew have come up with even dozens more hilarious situations than that. (more…)

I’m Ursula, the one who tolerates helps out with the HD DVD lifestyle in our house, and with kids and family home for the holidays, we thought it might be a good idea to talk about some family-oriented HD DVDs for everyone to watch together.

Stardust is a very recent release based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, and Charlie Cox, with Sienna Miller, Ricky Gervais and Peter O’ Toole in smaller roles.

The story follows the transformation of a very simple village boy, Tristan (Charlie Cox), into a heroic prince. Tristan enters the nearby magical town of Stormhold through a gap in the wall that separates that city from his own. He’s there to fetch a falling star as a present for the girl he likes (Sienna Miller), and is unwittingly embroiled into a fantasy fairy tale involving witches, princes, and the magical star, who turns out to be Yvaine (Claire Danes). (more…)

The Heartbreak Kid was originally a 1972 Neil Simon movie directed by Elain May, starring Charles Grodin, Eddie Albert, and Cybill Shepherd. The 2007 remake brought a whole new team, featuring the Farrelly brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) writing and directing, with Ben Stiller as their tragic hero, and Michelle Monaghan as his taboo love interest.

The highly unusual situation the hero is placed in (and no doubt, the Farrelly influence) makes this more of a guys’ movie than a romantic comedy. Eddie Cantrow (Ben Stiller) is successful at business, but not so much at love. His father and best friend convince this 40-year old bachelor that meeting Lila (Malin Akerman) on Valentine’s Day is a major stroke of good luck, and he’s later goaded by them into marrying her after only knowing her for six short weeks. Eddie immediately realizes his mistake just hours into the honeymoon, and the plot thickens from there. His new bride has many secrets that should have been learned ahead of time, and these eventually push him to falling out of love with her the moment he meets Miranda (Michelle Monaghan) just days into his honeymoon. (more…)

Unlike most people, I didn’t get Harry Potter or The Bourne Ultimatum from this week’s releases. Instead, I have the slightly more obscure, Freedom 3, the third episode of the anime series.

Imagine being on Netflix’s one-disc-at-a-time plan (which I am), but that it’s complicated by a months-long wait between the discs in your queue. And you’re using this method to get through all those subtitled Hiro Nakamura episodes on the disc set of Heroes (a problem I solved by purchasing the box set).

Following the Freedom series is not exactly like that, but it’s darn close. Each episode is pretty short at around 30 minutes, and then you have to wait a couple of months for the next one.

At my house, we didn’t realize that the series was growing on us until we popped in the third episode. Being the internet savvy dude that I am, I already knew what was in store, but it was fun to see it for myself — in HD. (more…)

Freedom: 2 is the second episode in the Freedom OVA series (Original Video Animaton – a series specifically released on DVD and perhaps later to theaters or television). In Japan, the series is already heading into its sixth episode, and we’re only now getting the second one here on HD DVD. It’s actually part of an advertising campaign for Nissin Cup Noodles, but this aspect is subtle enough to not be a distraction.

Aside from the fact that Freedom was the first HD DVD anime in North America, it’s also notable because these are also the first TWIN format discs released here. A TWIN disc has both the HD DVD and DVD layers on the same side. Whereas a traditional combo disc requires you to flip the disc to select formats, on a TWIN disc, you just pop it in, and your HD DVD or DVD player automatically reads the appropriate format.

The last review here was for the venerated Royal Space Force, a classic hand-drawn anime. Freedom is a bit more modern, not only in that its story takes place in the 23^rd century, but also (more…)

One of the challenges in gearing up for a new media format is that it takes a while for the more specialized and niche kinds of content to come out. Anime is a good example of this. Although several titles have been available in Japan, the first of these HD anime titles came to North America only recently. The first such HD DVD anime disc was Freedom, Volume I, from Bandai Visual and it’s about to be joined this month by Volume 2, and a two-hour feature, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise also from Bandai Visual.

Royal Space Force came out 20 years ago in 1987 and was the biggest budget anime of the time. It’s all hand-drawn with great attention to detail. The story is actually pretty deep, and takes place on another world that’s pretty similar to Earth around the time of the space race during the 1960s. Shiro is a guy who (more…)

Before the internet, many of us relied on shows like “Siskel & Ebert” to tell us about upcoming movies. Whereas you’d normally only get a single movie review at a time from other shows, “Siskel & Ebert” would review a bunch of movies all in one show. After Roger Ebert’s death, the show eventually continued its ways as “Siskel & Roeper.” Even with the advent of internet sites-aplenty that offer movie reviews and high-def trailers, it’s still fun to watch these two film critics go at it as they sometimes disagree with the other’s opinion.

Whether you care or not about someone else’s opinion of a movie, reviews are often helpful so that you might know a little more about a movie you’re considering renting or buying. Many of the HD DVD movies that are already out or coming soon are brand-new titles from this summer or the last few months, but there are many, many more that are old classics which movie fans are thrilled to finally view in high-definition.

The “At The Movies with Ebert & Roeper” show has announced that the corresponding AtTheMoviesTv.com website has digitized their library of 5,000 movie reviews, spanning more than 20 years of “Siskel & Ebert” and “Siskel & Roepert,” for online viewing. The famous “Thumbs Up” and “Thumbs Down” reviews are now available at your leisure, and you can add these to whatever research you perform on discs you’re thinking about getting for yourself.

Here are their reviews of a few popular titles that are out on HD DVD:

• Batman Begins (two enthusiastic thumbs up), buy at Amazon
• 300 (two enthusiastic thumbs up), buy at Amazon
• Hot Fuzz (two thumbs up, “hilarious”, “a well-made comedy”), buy at Amazon
• Disturbia (two thumbs up, “very well-done”), buy at Amazon
• TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) (two thumbs down - but neither of them were ever Turtles fans so that’s to be expected, and I’m sure kids would still like this one), buy at Amazon

I have agreed and disagreed with their reviews over the years, but I always enjoyed watching the show because I’d end up finding out about more movies to watch.

As I hinted earlier, the internet has many more movie review resources. I have my own favorites, but what about you? How about sharing any of your favorite movie review sites in the comments?