Video: How long will DVD and Blu-rays survive?

It’s a slow week in Videoville -- no major releases in the wake of the seventh “Star Wars”-- so it’s time for another in my occasional series on the state of home video.

When I wrote the first such column about seven years ago, I stated emphatically that DVD and the then-fairly-new Blu-ray format were the inarguable superior choice for watching movies at home. The picture and sound are unmatched compared to streaming, and most disc releases include bonus features unavailable elsewhere.

Over time, I’ve crab-walked further and further over to the streaming video side of the argument. In my last such piece, I admitted that my own family’s streaming consumption far exceeded our time watching on disc.

Now I’m ready to take the next step and ask: How much longer will DVD and Blu-rays survive as a viable format?

Sales of discs continue to fall. Netflix is now largely a streaming business with an arm that mails you DVDs and Blu-rays. Even the cheapest smartphone or tablet can stream Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Vudu, etc. Aside from the limits of your data plan and available Wi-Fi, you can watch almost anything, almost anywhere.

At home, between my Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions I can choose from literally thousands of films to stream instantly. And with a decent TV and surround sound, the presentation is roughly equal to DVD.

When people do want discs, they will use Redbox or a similar low-cost outlet to rent DVDs so they can see new releases on video right away rather than waiting for them to come to streaming.

In the unofficial election between video quality vs. convenience, the latter has won in a landslide. Movies on disc are the political equivalent of Barry Goldwater. DVDs have been around since 1999; Blu-ray since 2006. So what happens next?

My best guess is that discs will continue as a popular medium another decade or so. By then, the model for TV/movie/video consumption will have sufficiently blurred that it will no longer seem strange to have a new film released in theaters and streaming simultaneously.

Blu-ray and DVD will become a niche market for hardcore cinephiles who seek the absolute highest quality presentation possible -- roughly analogous to where CDs are for music today.

We are now seeing 3-D and Ultra HD televisions everywhere in stores, along with high-end Blu-ray players to accommodate them. As the price point on those comes down and more titles become available, a certain strata of consumers will migrate to that for when they really want to experience a movie at home with amazing picture and sound.

They key to the survival of the disc format is making sure next-gen players are backward compatible with Blu-rays and DVD. I, for one, don’t want to have to throw out a collection I spent years and thousands of dollars building.

(I already did that once with laserdiscs -- remember those? -- and painfully recall titles I paid $40 for being sold on eBay at $3 or $4.)

The point is, watching movies will continue to grow more democratic and versatile. People will still curl up before a big TV at home to watch a movie, but more often they want to watch while they’re eating lunch, riding in a vehicle or airplane, or even sitting in the dentist’s chair.

DVD and Blu-ray, and their disc-based successors, will endure like classic cars or sports cars. Perhaps 5 percent of the marketplace craves to drive in style; everybody else just wants to get from place to place with the greatest of ease.

Streaming is the future of home video

Every now and then, I like to take stock of the home video landscape. The first time I wrote such a column, I was firmly on the side of buying DVDs and Blu-ray over streaming movies. The superior audio/video quality, coupled with the plethora of extra features, made discs the clear winner against the upstart, I wrote.

Much has changed since then -- plus, not much of note is coming out on video this week -- so now’s a good time to reassess.

In 2007, Netflix shipped its 1 billionth DVD. But not long after, the video rental giant fell on hard times. They’re riding back high now -- to the point they’ve recently announced their intention to boost subscription prices for new members. (Existing members will enjoy an undetermined grandfathering period.)

The vast majority of new Netflix subscribers are streaming-only. Indeed, it has been estimated that one-third of all data usage on the web consists of people streaming Netflix shows!

Like competitors such as Hulu, Vudu, Amazon and others, they offer a large library of films and television shows available 24/7. On a home network with high-speed Internet access, video quality can be on par with DVD. Though one of the prime benefits of streaming is the ability to watch anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or laptop computer.

Personally, I still subscribe to both the streaming and DVD arms of Netflix, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Large portions of their film library -- especially older and less popular titles favored by cine-nerds -- aren’t available for streaming.

Plus, Netflix has become a major player in producing their own content, with shows like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” racking up viewers and Emmy Award nominations (and wins).
But with a small child and a baby coming up, right now probably 90 percent of my Netflix viewing is streaming. (And if I have to sit through one more episode of “LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu,” I’m liable to barf.)

The point is, convenience and versatility have come to trump presentation quality and diversity of choices. You may not be able to watch as many different things via streaming, and it may not look/sound as good as sitting in your home theater with a big flatscreen and Dolby 7.1 sound blasting out at you.

But with our hectic, on-the-go lifestyles, that’s simply not how most people are watching movies these days. For better and for worse, streaming is the future of home video.

Commentary: Swimming down the video stream

Last summer I wrote that, despite the advent of more digital download options, I thought DVD/Blu-ray represented the best format for home video. I still generally feel this way, but to borrow the title of a wonderful 1988 movie, "Things Change."

The biggest shift came in November, when Netflix -- which represents three-fifths of all on-demand movies sold -- announced a new online-only membership plan, and increased the number of titles available for instant viewing.

Plus, many more options for downloading or streaming movies have ramped up: Amazon Instant Video, Apple iTunes, Hulu Plus, Wal-Mart's VUDU, to name a few.

I still hold that a physical disc is the best option for watching movies. The picture and sound quality is unbeatable, and you don't have to worry about filling up your memory drive or getting your entire film collection zapped by a thunderstorm.

But for casual viewing, whether on the big-screen TV in your living room or on the go with your mobile device, streaming/downloading has many advantages. If you're just renting, it's a lot cheaper than shelling out to buy a disc. And the ability to choose your movie and start watching it within seconds (via streaming) is a consumer's dream.

Until recently I was working at home with our son, and when I needed to distract him for a few minutes there was nothing easier than using Netflix to call up a Barney or Care Bears video. (Hey, he's 6 months old, so no accounting for taste.)

The analogy I make for discs vs. downloads is your friends vs. your Facebook friends. Your friends are solid, real and valuable to you. Your Facebook friends are folks you want to stay loosely connected with -- the ease and convenience of doing so online means you don't have to lose sight of them completely.

In the same way, streaming video is for movies you want to watch right now, and convenience is paramount. With more choices available online, it becomes a more attractive option.

Still, the vast majority of titles are only available as a disc. For instance, if you want to watch "Things Change," you'll have to have Netflix mail you a disc -- it's not available for streaming.

Video: Discs vs. Downloads

We're in a dry spell for new video releases, so I'm using this week's column to discuss the future of home video.

A lot of very smart people think the video market is moving away from a physical object you keep on a bookshelf and insert into a player -- aka DVD or Blu-ray discs -- and toward all-digital libraries you store on a hard drive or stream whenever you want.

They've got some good evidence: DVD/Blu-ray sales were down 7 percent in the first half of 2010, while video rentals shrank nearly 5 percent, according to The Digital Entertainment Group. Meanwhile, downloads and on-demand were up 23 percent.

While there's no doubt hand-held devices like smart phones, iPods and iPads are a great match with downloaded movies, for the home theater aficionado who wants the biggest and best picture possible, discs still have the upper hand.

In order to squeeze file sizes down so they don't take a day and a half to download or stream, a movie's image suffers tremendously. A film that looks great on a four-inch iPhone would look horrendous on a 50-inch LCD.

Then there's the question of video extras, which are almost never included with downloaded and streamed movies. For many like myself, getting a behind-the-scenes peek at the filmmaking process or deleted scenes is an added value we've come to expect with Blu-ray/DVD.

And, more and more discs are including a digital copy to load on your personal device -- so you get the best of both worlds.

Personally, I'd rather pay $15 or $20 for a disc that looks great anywhere, comes with extra goodies and is hard to destroy, versus paying a few bucks less to download some ephemeral cloud of bytes that's only viable on a tiny screen, includes no extras and could get zapped by the next electrical storm or computer virus.

Not to mention: With discs, you can borrow a movie from a friend. Try that with iTunes' proprietary noose.

Time to go hi-def

This is my syndicated DVD column for this week. (I feel comfortable calling it "syndicated," since more than one newspaper now runs it.) It's not a review of a new video release like usual, but a meditation suggesting it's a good time to adopt Blu-ray.

Regular readers of this blog will note its similarity to a post I made about three weeks ago, which inspired this column.

No DVD review today, folks. It's a slow week for video releases -- "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" is about it, and here's my three-word review: Rent, don't buy.

Instead, I thought I'd use this week's column to talk about high-definition video. I recently took the step of upgrading to a Blu-ray player, and that will be reflected in the video reviews from here on. I also want to suggest that if you've been holding off on making the jump to the next generation of home video, recent developments suggest it's safe to come out now.

I don't blame anyone for hesitating to adopt new video technology, after the death of such formats as Betamax, laser disc, Divx and now HD DVD -- the competitor to Blu-ray that folded in early 2008 after nearly a two-year war for hi-def dominance.

The first thing you need to know is that your old DVDs aren't headed to the junkpile: Blu-ray is backward compatible. So you can upgrade your favorite titles to hi-def if you want, and keep the rest of your DVD library intact on your shelf.

Lately, the price and availability of Blu-ray players and movies has improved significantly. Brand-name players that cost $500 and up in 2006 can now be found in the $200-$250 range, with some basic machines as low as $150. Blockbuster, Netflix and other major video rental outlets are stocking more and more Blu-ray selections (1,000+ at Netflix).

If you want to buy, Blu-ray discs cost a little more than regular DVDs, but you can find plenty for under $20. Recently, Amazon ran a sale on popular titles for around $11.

The biggest factor in whether to upgrade is your television. If you don't have a hi-def set capable of 1080p resolution, you're not going to see much of an on-screen difference between Blu-ray and DVD (which has a resolution of 480).

If you're adventurous, you can opt for a Sony PlayStation 3 game console, which includes a Blu-ray player. My new PS3 Slim cost $300, so for a small premium over regular Blu-ray, I got gaming, too.

DVD review: "State of Play"

An above-average political thriller, "State of Play" also offers one of the most authentic portrayals of newspaper journalists since "All the President's Men."

With his frumpy clothes fitting poorly over a pudgy body, paper-strewn cubicle, studied nonchalance and scruffy beard decorated with Cheetos crumbs, Russell Crowe appears every inch the grizzled, veteran reporter. His Cal McAffrey is an old-school digger for the fictional Washington Globe.

His best friend also happens to be Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), a young, Kennedy-esque Congressman who gets caught up in a sex-and-murder imbroglio that Cal has been assigned to investigate.

Tagging along is an idealistic young blogger (Rachel McAdams) who Cal initially treats dismissively. In time, he sees that the kid's got chops, and they become partners in the biggest story in Washington, D.C.

Helen Mirren also has a nice turn as the ball-busting editor trying to get a juicy story where her star reporter has a personal connection that could lead to a big scoop, but also backfire if he tries to protect his friend rather than the facts. She also has to deal with impersonal new corporate owners who value profit over news.

Director Kevin Macdonald ("The Last King of Scotland") and his trio of screenwriters stir the pot expertly at first, allowing the players and pieces of the puzzle to assemble themselves. The second half turns too much to conventional thriller tropes, including the unlikely scenario of both Cal and his young partner having shots taken at them in separate incidents.

DVD extras are rather miserly: Two deleted scenes and a making-of featurette that consists of more hype than insight. The only interesting thing I found in the latter was cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto's decision to shoot Crowe's scenes on film with an anthropomorphic lens to give them a gritty, shallow look while using digital video with a deep focus for Affleck's scenes to make Washington's corridors of power seem sleek and expansive.

Movie: 3 stars
Extras: 2 stars

Stepping into the Blu

I've written extensively about next-generation video, particularly the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD for supremacy. That war was decided more than 18 months ago, with Blu-ray the clear victor, but until now I've resisted adopting the format myself.

For awhile, the top reason was self-protection: I've been burned before as an early adopter of new technology. Just ask me about Commodore and Amiga computers, or the thousands of dollars I spent on laserdiscs. I was not about to be left with a library of films I could not watch anymore because my laserdisc player had broke, and you can't buy a replacement.

In the early going, Blu-ray players were not backward compatible with regular DVDs, unlike HD DVDs. But the Sony folks quickly realized that most people have at least a couple dozen DVDs sitting on their shelf, and don't like the idea of them becoming paperweights. So all the Blu-ray machines that have come out in the last couple of years can play DVDs. In fact, when I was looking at them in the store recently, I noticed the signage labels them as "Blu-ray and DVD players."

The other issue delaying purchase was price. Blu-ray players initially cost $500 and up, but have steadily come down in price. Just a few months ago, they still cost $300 or more. But the price has finally broken the $200 threshold, which is where I think you'll see a lot of people ready to make the jump. I've seen basic players for as little as $150, and even decent name-brand ones go for between $200-250.

Then Dylan, one of my two best and oldest friends, suggested I get a Sony PlayStation 3 instead. Now, I have not owned a game console literally since the Atari 2600. I still actively play games, but prefer the slower, more intellectually-bent kind that appeal to PC users like myself. I gave up World of Warcraft a few months ago, and have been piddling around with Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3 since then.

The appeal of the PS3 is that it includes a built-in Blu-ray player. So I ended up doing lot of research to see if I really could hook one up to my home theater system and essentially replace my DVD player, while adding the gaming feature as a bonus.

Short version: Absolutely.

In the end, I ended up getting the PS3 Slim, the newest generation of the PlayStation that just came out, with the help of some birthday money from Dylan. It costs $300, so basically for a premium of $50 or $75, you're buying a Blu-ray player and getting gaming on top.

I'm pretty impressed with the Slim. It has built-in Wi-Fi, so I can connect to the online gaming network, browse the Internet, etc. I also really liked that it has a digital optical output, which is necessary to get Dolby Digital DTS sound. I put in a DVD last night, cranked up my system, and it sounded great. (I love seeing the little orange "DTS" symbol light up on my receiver.)

The one wrinkle in hooking it up was my television, which is about six years old now. It does not have HDMI inputs (the new highest standard), but the older YPR component jacks. I did have to shell out an extra 20 backs for a PlayStation adapter that would connect to my TV.

I'm still testing the unit out -- I did buy one cheap collection of games, the Orange Box, but haven't even had a chance to try it out yet.

I will confess that I feel like a Jurassic-era gamer handling these new game controllers, with their strange, ergonomic shape and assortment of buttons and thumb controls. My idea of a controller is a black rubber joystick and one rubber button. I feel like a cave man confronted with a steam engine.

Perhaps later today I'll go rent a Blu-ray movie, maybe one I already have on DVD, so I can test out the quality difference. I don't think it'll be as stark an improvement as people say, but for now I'm pretty happy with my step into Blu.

UPDATE: I went out and rented "Iron Man" on BR, since I have the DVD in my library and could pop one in after another to compare. As expected, it looks better, but it's not mind-blowing. Although I should point out that my older set is only capable of 1080i resolution, not 1080p. (If you'd don't know the difference, you can find out here.)

Blu-ray discs do seem to come with a lot more features; for example, a digital copy of the film to put on your iPod or other mobile device is almost standard on BR, although more DVDs are including it, too.

I didn't rent any games, although there was a decent selection at the local Blockbuster. They do want quite a lot to rent them though -- something like 15 percent of the purchase price. I guess it's a good way to check out a game before plunking down upwards of $60 to own it.

DVD review: "The Last House on the Left"

For fans of the horror genre, these are dog days.

Between wimpy PG-13 watered-down scareflicks that elicit more derisive laughs than fear, and grisly "torture porn" movies that substitute carving of flesh for ratcheting up tension, those of us who enjoy films that truly frighten have not had much reason to anticipate the latest offerings.

Perhaps it's no surprise that horror merchants have turned to remaking classics of the genre for an unsuspecting new generation of fans. The "Halloween," "Friday the 13th" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchises have all enjoyed lucrative recycling.

"The Last House on the Left" is the latest and, surprisingly, best example of this trend. This remake of the 1972 debut of director Wes Craven ("Nightmare on Elm Street") actually manages some genuine thrills.

It's certainly violent -- and the unrated DVD version pumps up the blood-letting over what audiences saw in theaters -- but director Dennis Eliadis has a nice eye for composition as well as a flair for generating a sense of paranoia.

Both the original and remake employ the set-up of Mari, a teen girl vacationing at a remote house with her parents. While out to score some pot, she and a girlfriend are captured by a gang of murderers, who torture and rape the girls. As it happens, the killers show up on the doorstep of Mari's parents, who eventually discover that the unexpected guests are their daughter's tormentors, and seek revenge.

Garret Dillahunt gives a satisfyingly creepy performance as Krug, the head of the gang, who is trying to initiate his young son into his twisted sense of manhood.

As for extras, it's very meager fare. There are a handful of "deleted" scenes, most of which are just slightly re-edited versions of existing footage. And there's a very brief making-of featurette that is little more than marketing hype, where the filmmakers tell each other how great they are.

Movie: 2.5 stars
Extras: 1.5 stars

DVD review: "Watchmen Director's Cut"

A quick programming note: I'm moving this review a week early; "Watchmen" hits stores on July 21.

"Watchmen," based on perhaps the greatest comic book ever, was bound to polarize audiences.

Ardent fans (like me) of the 1985 graphic novel loved director Zach Snyder's obsessively faithful adaptation of a morally ambiguous world in which super-heroes are more psychologically twisted than the villains they pursue. The rest of the cinema-going public was more or less indifferent.

Its video release is bound to cause more folks to take sides.

On July 21, it will be offered in a single-disc version that presents the theatrical version of the film. The simultaneous two-disc "Director's Cut" includes 25 minutes of additional footage, which push the run time past three hours.

That may be too much for casual audiences. But hardcore fans may want to wait until December, when an even longer "Ultimate Collector's Edition" will be released.

This will include a commentary track (absent here), a "motion comic" version of the graphic novel (already available), and "Tales of the Black Freighter," a pirate story that parallels the action in the original comic, which will be woven into the director's cut.

The extras with the director's cut are decent, but not overwhelming. There are 11 short featurettes that cover various topics on the making of the film, including how actor Billy Crudup wore a suit of glowing blue lights to portray nude superman Dr. Manhattan.

There's also a 30-minute documentary on the impact of the original comic, which includes the participation of illustrator Dave Gibbons but not writer Alan Moore, who has consistently refused to allow his name to be attached to this or any movie version of his work. And there's a music video by My Chemical Romance.

The additional 25 minutes only add to the film's richness, expanding some scenes and adding a few others that build up several main characters, especially Rorschach, the masked vigilante portrayed in a mesmerizing performance by Jackie Earle Haley. Most new scenes are integrated seamlessly, but one that stands out is the murder of Hollis Mason, aka the original Nite Owl. It packs one powerful punch.

Movie (theatrical version): 3.5 stars
Movie (director's cut): 4 stars
Extras: 3 stars

New on DVD for 7/14

Here's this week's list of new video releases, with handy-dandy links to buy:

New on DVD for 6/30

Here's my weekly roundup of new video releases, with links to buy:

DVD review: "Friday the 13th"

If you're curious why they made a 12th "Friday the 13th" movie -- in this case, a remake of the 1980 original -- all you have to do is add some numbers.

According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, this movie cost $16 million to make. At a guess, the promotional and distribution costs doubled that number. Enough people hungry for a bloody slasher flick with a heavy dash of sex and nudity showed up on its opening weekend to record $43 million of ticket sales. It died quickly -- taking in barely more than half that the rest of its entire run. But when you add in foreign box office and video, it's a low cost/high return wager to bet on the "Friday the 13th" brand name.

Never mind that the hacks making these movies keeping insisting theirs is the last one. Heck, the subtitle of the fourth one in 1984 promised "The Final Chapter," only to fall off the wagon with the fifth, "A New Beginning." In 1993, the ninth film claimed it was "The Final Friday," and for eight years it actually was. But hockey mask killer Jason Vorhees came back again, and even squared off with the king of another horror franchise, Freddy Krueger.

This new one adds absolutely nothing to the formula, which everyone should know by heart now: Horny teens show up at remote Camp Crystal Lake for some sex and drugs, and are sequentially turned to filet mignon by the machete-wielding Jason. Rinse and repeat, and repeat again. There's no tension or build-up; just boo/gotcha moments followed closely by miscellaneous impalings and beheadings.

The DVD comes with an 11-minute making-of featurette that consists mainly of cast and crew talking delusionally about how great it is to be in the umpteenth "Friday the 13th" film. Plus, there are three deleted scenes, two of which are slightly different versions of existing scenes, including Jason's "death." That needs quotation marks, since this film's box office success guarantees he will live on in a new round of sequels. Kill us.

Movie: 1 star

Extras: 1.5 stars

DVD review: "Valkyrie"

Even with an eye patch, a stump where his right hand used to be and two missing fingers on his left, Tom Cruise still looks every bit the dashing movie star in "Valkyrie," the tale of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and stage a coup against the Nazi regime.

It's an apt metaphor for the movie itself, which is skillfully made and great to look at, but ultimately registers as a glammed-up retread of history.

The best portions deal with the tactics of the assassination attempt itself -- Cruise, as a wounded war hero, sneaks a bomb into Hitler's Wolf's Lair bunker, hides it under the conference table, and must make his escape amidst the ensuing confusion. But the story reaches this pinnacle fairly early, and what follows is a dizzying and droning sequence of phone calls and running soldiers as the conspirators attempt to seal the coup.

This is one of the few instances where a movie could have been improved by running longer. The personal and family life of Cruise's character, Lt. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, is given such short shrift that when he calls his wife to let her know the plot has failed and he is doomed, we can barely remember who she is.

The DVD comes with an excellent set of additional features. Kevin Burns directs an in-depth, 40-minute historical documentary of the actual events surrounding the coup, including mesmerizing footage of a judge insulting the surviving conspirators at the show trials that followed. A 16-minute making-of doc follows the usual patterns.

There are two top-notch commentary tracks. The first is by Cruise, director Bryan Singer and co-screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie -- an all-too rare collaboration of a film's principal talents. Among their many insights is an acknowledgement that they consciously recruited actors from other World War II movies, including "Downfall" and "Black Book." McQuarrie pulls double duty by contributing another separate commentary track with his writing partner, Nathan Alexander.

Movie: 2.5 stars
Extras: 3.5 stars

New on DVD for 5/19

Here's a quick list of what's new on home video this week, with quick links to buy:

Bonus DVD review: "Cargo 200"

"Cargo 200" is a bleak and disturbing Russian drama about decay. Set in 1984, during a time when the old Soviet Union seemed to be replacing one expiring octogenarian leader after another, the country appears to be literally falling apart. Even a powerful colonel in the Army lives in a shabby apartment with cracked plaster.

Based on actual events, "Cargo 200" has an elliptical storyline that at first feels confusing, but slowly narrows to a single razor-sharp point, a rotting bedroom where a young girl is being repeatedly tormented and violated. Her captor is an icy police colonel, who kidnapped her and handcuffs her to the bed in his mother's apartment, convinced that she is his unfeeling wife. In one of his attempts to gain her ardor, the captain brings a violent convict he has shot in the arm to the apartment and has the prisoner rape her. When that doesn't work, he really gets nasty.

The captain is a symbol for the entirety of crumbling Communism: corrupt, irreligious, completely amoral, yet in some deep recess of his shadowy consciousness he recognizes that he's dying, and sees the girl as his last chance at rebirth. His elderly mother, who sits drinking vodka all day, watching television while indifferent to the horde of flies attracted to the increasing number of bodies in the next room, represents the complacent older generation. The girl and her erstwhile paramour, a hustler with a leather jacket and his own car, are the new wave emerging, content to enjoy the new freedoms allowed by the rifts in the old Soviet order, but in their own way equally corrupt and damned.

Writer/director Alexey Balabanov arrives at these themes methodically, building his vision in a way that requires a patient audience. The first half of the film offers few clues to the horrors that will follow, following a different set of characters that intersect, and slowly cede the stage to darker creatures. A flighty professor, the brother of the army colonel, suffers a car breakdown while traveling to see his mother, and begs help from a moonshiner, with whom he argues about the role of religion in society.

The title of "Cargo 200" refers to the codename given to Soviet soldiers who are killed in Afghanistan, and brought home in cheap boxes to await burial by an indifferent bureaucracy. The sadistic police captain at one point is ordered to take charge of such cargo -- a none too subtle example of the dead burying the dead.

As for extras -- there aren't any, not even a theatrical trailer.

Movie: 3 stars
Extras: 1 star

DVD review: "Taken"

Part of the joy of a movie like "Taken" is that it seemed to come out of nowhere. It was released earlier this year with virtually no marketing or fanfare, starring an actor, Liam Neeson, who's well-regarded by hardly a box office heavyweight, with a storyline about an ex-spy that seemed overly familiar. But its spare style and intense energy propelled it to become the sleeper hit of early 2009.

Neeson is perfectly suited to the roll of Bryan Mills, a former spook who has retired so he can be closer to his teen daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). Mills at first seems a bit of a loser, moping around a tiny apartment and crashing his daughter's birthday party at her wealthy stepdad's mansion. But when Kim is abducted by a prostitution ring while in Paris, he springs into hunter mode.

Neeson skillfully underplays, turning his character into the antithesis of the boasting, self-regarding cinematic action hero. He can take out a small army of goons by himself, but there's no bravado in the way he does it -- it's simply the job, one he's gotten very good at. He's coldly efficient, saving the life of a prostitute strung out on heroine not out of benevolence, but because it helps his quest.

There's a healthy set of DVD extras, including both the theatrical and unrated versions of the film, though I was hard-pressed to tell the difference. A making-of documentary is fairly rote; a more clever addition is a feature showing how they shot some of the more harrowing scenes, with side-by-side comparisons of the stunts and the final version. A commentary track (in French, with subtitles) by director Pierre Morel and cinematographer Michel Abramowicz gets bogged down in the technical aspects of filmmaking. But a separate (English) track by co-screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (who also wrote the first two "Transporter" flicks) is much livelier -- including his description of an ending that was tacked on by the French backers against his wishes.

Movie: 3.5 stars
Extras: 3 stars

New on DVD for 5/12

Here's some quick links to Tuesday's new video releases:

DVD review: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

I am not trying to be flip when I say that the impressive set of extras that come with the two-disc DVD edition of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are more enjoyable to watch than the movie itself.

Despite a Best Picture Oscar nomination, "Benjamin Button" curiously lacked emotional punch. The tale of a man who is born old and ages backward (based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald) was an unmitigated technological triumph, as director David Fincher and an army of computer animators believably changed Brad Pitt from a handsome middle-aged movie star into a decrepit old man and eventually a teen, and every age in between.

But even though the nearly three-hour running time skips along crisply, the film fails to resonate on a human level. Pitt comes across as a Zelig-like figure, trotting through history without his journey ever coalescing into a coherent theme or purpose. Even an affecting performance by Cate Blanchett as Benjamin's lifelong love doesn't overpower the fascinating physical transformation they both go through.

Every minute detail of how this change was achieved is explored in the special edition DVD (from the unmatched Criterion Collection). We see how a succession of body doubles wearing blue masks performed the early scenes, and Pitt -- wearing green kabuki face paint -- is recorded, his features aged and transposed onto the body.

The extensive featurettes can be watched individually, or as a single hefty making-of documentary that touches on every aspect of the production. Producers are unusually forthright in describing the two-decade-long process to bring "Benjamin Button" to the screen, with a succession of directors dropping out.

There is also a lavish set of still galleries including the entire film storyboard, and feature-length commentary by Fincher. In digesting all this material, one senses how seriously the entire cast and crew approached making this movie. Unwittingly, the extras provide an arresting portrait of a filmmaking effort gone awry.

Movie: 2 stars
Extras: 4 stars

DVD review: "Bride Wars"

For some movies, watching the trailer is like seeing the entire movie in a two-minute-and-30-second version compilation of the best moments, with all the boring stuff edited out. "Bride Wars" is one of those.

As far as chick flicks go, it's not awful -- just utterly predictable. Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play two friends who have shared the childhood dream of holding their weddings at the Plaza Hotel in New York. But whoops, the über-powerful queen of wedding planners (Candice Bergen, apparently consigned to these old battle-ax roles now) accidentally books them on the same day, and neither will back down. So the BFFs become bridezillas from hell trying to sabotage each other's dream wedding.

The obvious solution is to have a joint wedding, of course, but we've got a movie to put on here, so out the window that goes.

There are clever bits, such as Hudson tinkering with Hathaway's tanning machine. The scene where she walks down a New York sidewalk, emerging from the crowd the color of a neon carrot, is priceless. As for the grooms, the movie mostly seems to forget they exist.

Inevitably, though, the movies takes a sappy turn as the comedy dries up and the tear ducts start flowing.

The extras are appallingly skimpy. There are three very brief deleted scenes, including an alternate opening. And a featurette titled "The Perfect White Dress" is nothing more than a 5-minute commercial for Vera Wang. Perhaps the product placement deal the studio struck with the dressmaker mirrored one of the funnier lines in the movie: "You don't alter a Vera Wang to fit you; you alter yourself to fit Vera Wang."

I guess in the real-life bride wars, integrity is the first thing to surrender.

Movie: 2 stars
Extras: 1 star

A little business...

In an effort to generate a little revenue, I'm pleased to announce a new advertising effort here on this site.

I'm starting out with some product links, and hope to add a few banners and widgets as soon as I get it figured out.

The terms of the agreement preclude me from saying who my new partner is, though it's pretty obvious if you scroll through the posts below.

It's pretty simple: If anyone clicks through my portal and buys a DVD, I get a piece of the sale. I have now added these links to all my DVD reviews and "Reeling Backward" features from the first of the year.

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