Evans Above

CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment have released Showtime’s Billions Season Six on DVD. I had a chance to take a look. The previous five seasons had aggressive hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) battling the investigations led by US Attorney Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti). With Lewis exiting the series to spend more time with family, Rhoades’ new sparring partner at the hedge fund is Michael Prince (Corey Stall) and these battles are of Olympic proportions.

The 4-disc DVD set contains all twelve episodes of season six. The video presentation is in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The show is digitally shot in HD, so though this is a standard definition DVD presentation, it does look quite good for the medium and given how badly some streaming services and providers can throttle the bandwidth at times, a DVD presentation can sometimes look better than what you’re streaming online. The colour palette is pretty good for a DVD, but yes, it would have been nice if it was on Blu-ray. Maybe fans will get a Blu-ray box set when the series ends. Fingers crossed.

On the audio side, there’s an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack with subtitles available in English SDH. As with many similar shows, the soundtrack is very front-heavy, with the surrounds sparingly used for the odd effect or ambient noise. Dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.

The 4-disc DVD set does not come with a digital copy code. In terms of extras, there are three small featurettes.

The Billions Season Six DVD set is aimed at those who either love the show and simply must have it on physical media or at those who missed it airing and don’t subscribe to Paramount+. If fans get their wish, hopefully when the series is over we might one day get a Blu-ray box set.

Last year, Paramount released 4K standard and SteelBook 4-movie collections of the Raider of the Lost Ark franchise. The artwork and packaging on the sets, especially the SteelBooks, left some feeling underwhelmed. This year, Paramount is releasing the four films individually on SteelBooks with much improved artwork. Whether you call it double dipping or an attempt to right a wrong, the SteelBook artwork is much improved and it will be tempting for some collectors to pick up the new ones. As I had previously reviewed the discs themselves last year, I’d normally point to that review for the technical info. That review, unfortunately, is one of the entries that got blown up in a database fiasco, so while I work on recovering it, I’ll give my fingers some exercise and cover the same ground again. First up is the film that started it all, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now hold on a second, you say, isn’t the film called Raiders of the Lost Ark? Yes, that’s the way I saw it in theatres. However, in 1999, Paramount added the Indiana Jones… part to the video releases to keep the title consistent with other entries in the franchise. Call it what you want.

The film follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), an archaeologist trying to beat the Nazis to finding the Ark of the Covenant, which is said to make armies invincible. The Germans have an army and the help of a rival archaeologist, Dr. René Belloq (Paul Freeman). Indy has the help of a feisty ex-girlfriend, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). My money’s on Indy.

Just to clarify, the 4K disc is the same 4K disc that was released as part of the four movie set last year. The 2160p HEVC / H.265 native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation looks fantastic. The image is sharp, clear and colourful. Obviously, this 1981 classic was shot on film and the transfer is wonderfully filmic, with a light grain texture. Sand, faces, buildings and textiles reveal details galore. The colour palette is amazing too and the HDR colour grading amplifies all the improvements. Bright golds, dark browns, sun-bleached sand and colourful bazaars cover the spectrum. Whites are dazzling and the black levels are deep, with great detail still available in the darker scenes and shadow areas. There’s no evidence of print damage from this forty-year-old film and there’s no digital noise or compression artifacts to speak of. This transfer is a treasure.

On the audio side, your ears have the choice of English Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtracks as well as Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 and Russian Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Russian, Swedish and Thai. The upmix into Dolby Atmos works very well, with the overhead channels finding work with the famous rolling boulder and other elements like planes. The action elements playfully dance through your surrounds and you’ll be tempted to duck. Low frequencies add additional thrills. John Williams score is powerful and dynamic, while dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.

This time around, the SteelBook artwork is head and shoulders above the previous SteelBook release with a whip-cracking Indy front and centre, surrounded by other characters from the film. The back of the SteelBook features a world map with the Ark above it. The packaging includes a digital copy code and the interior artwork is an image of Indy and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) lifting the Ark. A fold-open poster of the original art is also included. The four-movie set included a Blu-ray disc of bonus materials but sadly this one does not, so the only bonus materials on the 4K disc are three trailers.

If you buy this standalone Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark 4K SteelBook, you are buying it a) because you want the much better SteelBook artwork for collecting purposes or b) you didn’t buy last year’s four movie set. I just want to be clear: This is the same disc as last year with better individual packaging and no bonus features. It’s the same great video and sound as last year, but with a different outfit and no bonus elements to speak of. The other three films in the franchise are on their way in solo SteelBooks as well.

Though there was some initial reluctance when fans heard that Robert Pattinson would be the next Caped Crusader, Matt Reeves’ The Batman quelled those fears with a dark and moody outing. Gotham City’s favourite genius vigilante is up against a serial killer named the Riddler (Paul Dano) who has been killing the city’s elite. Can Batman stop Riddler and uncover the corruption that has long plagued the city? The cast also features Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle / Catwoman, Jeffrey Wright as Lieutenant James Gordon, John Turturro as mobster Carmine Falcone, Andy Serkis as Alfred and Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot / Penguin. Warner Brothers Home Entertainment has released The Batman on 4K and I was given a chance to look at it. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation is a stunner. The image is razor sharp with an amazing amount of detail in costumes, faces, hair and locations. The details hold up in even the darkest scenes and, hey, with Batman you get a lot of those. The black levels are deep but, again, this is where 4K shines as everything still stands out. It’s a dark palette but the HDR colour grading really makes things like displays and fires pop. The image is clean and free from artifacts. Stunning.

On the audio side, The Batman comes with English, German and Italian Dolby Atmos tracks, English, French (Canada), German, Italian and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks as well as English Descriptive Audio. Subtitles are available for English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. The Atmos track takes advantage of the height speakers and between that and the wonderful surround usage you’ll be so much in the action that you might vote for the next Gotham mayor. Your subwoofer will shake the roof off, while the musical score in powerful and dynamic. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized in the mix.

The three disc set of The Batman comes with the 4K disc, a Blu-ray version and a bonus materials Blu-ray. A digital code is included. The extras include a look at the fight choreography, insights into Pattinson’s casting and character choices, an examination of whether Batman and Riddler are two sides of the same coin, a piece on Catwoman, looks at the new Batmobile and car chases, a look at one of the gadgets in Batman’s arsenal, an almost hour-long “making of” featurette, a look at the costume design, a piece on Penguin’s makeup, and deleted scenes.

The Batman has amazing video, stunning audio, and a great selection of extras. Heartily recommended.

Sometimes when a problem seems almost too big to comprehend, it helps to bring the story down to a personal level that we can relate to better. That’s exactly what The Quiet Epidemic, which screened as part of Toronto’s Hot Docs 2022, does for chronic Lyme disease.

The disease affects hundreds of thousands in the United States, but getting it recognized as a chronic condition by doctors, the CDC and more importantly, for Americans, the insurance companies is an uphill battle. Directors Lindsay Keys and Winslow Crane-Murdoch start off with the story of Julia Bruzzese a once-vivacious teenage girl in Brooklyn who was suddenly hit with an illness that left her tired all the time and using a wheelchair. Her father checked everything he could and his information pointed to Lyme disease. Her dismissive doctors pushed back against that notion and even accused her of faking her illness. The Bruzzeses weren’t alone though and weren’t some kooks dismissing science. In fact their paths cross with noted oncologist and researcher Dr. Neil Spector, whose own battle with Lyme had left him needing a heart transplant.

We branch off from these personal experiences with the disease to see the origins of Lyme disease and how tests were manipulated to lesson the number of people diagnosed in the first place so that insurance companies could keep their payouts down. We learn of vaccines removed from the market for legal reasons and just like tobacco, we see that money trail that often connects the doctors and the CDC to the insurance companies.

I’d strongly recommend looking for this doc in your town or online. As much as The Quiet Epidemic is the story of the fighting spirit of a girl, her father, and a noted researcher, it’s also a stark reminder that in the United States especially, the Hippocratic Oath has a price limit attached.

Meeting Point is a powerful doc that explores what happened to the fathers of filmmakers Alfredo García and Paulina Costa. Directed by Roberto Baeza, Meeting Point screened as part of Hot Docs’ Made in Chile program.

García and Costa were just babies when their fathers, Alfredo García Vega and Lucho Costa Del Pozo — protesters against the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet — were arrested and imprisoned in a tiny cell in Villa Grimaldi, one of Pinochet’s infamous torture centres. Only Costa’s father survived the ordeal, but through the use of actors, and aided by painful interviews with family and friends, they hope to gain an understanding of their final days.

As the filmmakers enter pre-production, building sets and auditioning actors, the events they are recreating are given additional power by the fact that Chile is undergoing the Estallido Social, a series of protests across Chile against social inequity that were met by aggressive measures by the government of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera.

Director Baeza gives us a very powerful documentary. It’s impossible to watch unaffected as García’s mother relives the last moments with her husband or Lucho painfully describes the routines of torture that he and García’s father were subjected to on a daily basis. The actors in the documentary are also deeply affected by the history they are trying to recreate.

The cinematography by García and Alejandro Carrasco deftly moves between capturing the making of the movie within the doc and the recreations done by the actors that transition from homes to claustrophobic, inhumane prison cells.

Meeting Point is a reminder that the events of the past are just a slippery slope from being the conditions of the present.

Screening as part of Hot Docs’s Made in Chile program, Daniel Díaz’s On Suspicion Zokunentu is a very personal look at the effect of the ingrained racism of Chilean society towards the indigenous community. When he as younger, Díaz’s uncle, celebrated Mapuche artist Bernardo Oyarzún, was arrested on suspicion of jewelry theft. Oyarzún bore no resemblance to the suspect, but the local police didn’t care. He was Mapuche, and that was the only thing that mattered to them. This same profiling also happened to his maternal grandfather. The brutal treatment by the police was to suit their own racist narrative.

The exploration of this topic leads Díaz to explore his indigenous culture and family history. He uses archival footage and family photos combined with the powerful sculptures, photos and art installations of his uncle to tell the tale of their treatment while celebrating both his family and the culture, language, and traditions of the Mapuche.

On Suspicion Zokunentu is a very proud and personal doc. When I watched it, I was captivated by the culture. It’s maddening how so many are threatened by diversity instead of celebrating it.

Screening as part of Hot Docs’ Made in Chile program, Yerko Ravlic’s Desert Space follows Leonel Codoceo, who works as a mining company security guard in the town of Copiapó, located in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert.

His job and life may seem lonely at first, with an ex he’s trying to reconcile with in Australia, but he has a circle of friends that share the same passion that he has: UFOs. Pretty much every night, Leonel spends hours watching and recording the night sky, looking for light or movement that may indicate that we are not alone. He and his friends then pore over the recordings, carefully tagging possible sightings in a spreadsheet that he maintains. This group supports and cares for his work and his passion is leading him to organize a vigil of fellow skywatchers.

Ravlic’s direction moves at a pace that gives us a feeling of the quiet effort that our subject expends every night. This is not a documentary that comes at you with narration or interviews. We are bystanders quietly accompanying Leonel on his nightly watches and you’ll find yourself scanning the night sky looking for something as well.

And what a sky. Nathaly Cano’s cinematography captures the star-filled sky perfectly. If you’re a city dweller who has never ventured from the light polluted skies, you’ll be amazed by how much of the cosmos is unfolding above us. Just look carefully, you might miss something.

When you’re covering physical media you see a lot of press releases. You might think “Oh that’ll look great” or “the fans will love to see that upgraded to 4K.” Occasionally, you take off the journalist hat and get personally excited about a release. When Warner Brothers announced that they were celebrating the 70th anniversary of Singin’ in the Rain with a 4K release, I was happy and the announcement transported me back to lazy Sunday afternoons watching the movie on TV with my parents and sister. It’s a joyous movie and you can’t help but be uplifted by the performances of Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds. Warner Bros is releasing the classic on 4K and I had a chance to review it. The WB likes disclaimers, so here goes: Though Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this release to review, the thoughts and opinions below are mine.

If you’ve never seen it, Singin’ in the Rain is a musical rom-com set in 1920s Hollywood, just as movies are making the transition from silent films to “talkies.” Kelly plays leading man Don Lockwood, whose studio has him “romantically linked” to his irritating co-star, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). He can’t stand her and instead begins to fall for a young actress named Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). When the studio decides to make his latest picture a musical to highlight motion picture sound, we discover that Lina has the perfect voice…for silent movies. What will the studio do? Will Lockwood and his best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) come up with a plan? Make some popcorn and settle in for some fun.

The 2160p HEVC/H.265 encoded native 4K digital transfer with HDR10 is presented in a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The video presentation of this remastered 4K is simply stunning. Details are perfect in the actors’ faces and hair, the clothing and the various sets. The colour palette is a rainbow of Technicolor hues and the HDR colour grading gives colours and highlights that extra pop. The only quibble with colour is with the flesh tones as they shift from pale to pink. This is most likely due to the multiple film sources used as the original negative was a victim of a 1978 storage facility fire. There’s a light level of grain. The blacks are inky and details remain in the shadows. In a word, this transfer is gorgeous.

On the audio side, your ears are presented with an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, the original English 2.0 Mono track presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, and French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Castilian and Latin American) 2.0 Mono Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), Japanese, and Korean. The best news here is the inclusion of the original mono soundtrack which enable you to hear the movie the way it was originally released. The dialogue is clear and the music sounds great. The English 5.1 track is the same track from the 2012 Blu-ray release and does a very nice job moving the soundtrack into a larger soundscape. Elements of the soundtrack have been moved into the surrounds, but the real star is the music and vocal in the musical number. The stars’ sound great and the music is bright, lush and dynamic. Dialogue is clear, centred and well prioritized.

The Singin’ in the Rain 4K comes with the aforementioned 2012 Blu-ray as well as a digital code. Most of the extras are on that Blu-ray, while the 4K disc contains audio commentary from Cyd Charisse, screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, co-director Stanley Donen, Kathleen Freeman, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds as well as filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and author Rudy Behlmer. It also has a quick way to hit the musical numbers. The Blu-ray contains the commentaries, a 50 minute doc, the jukebox feature and a theatrical trailer.

The Singin’ in the Rain 4K set has stunning video, amazing sound and a nice selection of extras. It’s a wonderful presentation of one of the best musicals in movie history that will leave you dancing and singin’ in the rain. Highly recommended.

Jake Kasdan’s 2002 comedy Orange County is now getting the Blu-ray treatment from Paramount Home Entertainment. The film stars Colin Hanks as Shaun, a carefree teenager who coast through school until he finds a book that inspires him and he decides to become a writer. When he discovers that the author teaches at Stanford, it becomes his sole fixation. Unfortunately, his transcript is mixed up with another student and he’s rejected. He refuses to give up and supported by his girlfriend (Schuyler Fisk) and variously aided and impeded by his dysfunctional family (John Lithgow, Catherine O’Hara and Jack Black), Shaun will stop at nothing to get in.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It’s a typical Blu-ray with good detail in facial textures, textiles and environments. The film has a bright and vivid colour palette and there’s no digital noise or compression artifacts to talk about. This is the nice thing with studios moving some of their smaller catalog titles to Blu-ray. Though this isn’t some super dazzling restoration of a highly-anticipated classic, just the upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray gives the film a nicer way to be remembered.

As for audio, your ears are given the choice of an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack as well as German, Spanish (Latin American) and French 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, German, Spanish, French and Japanese. It’s a front-heavy mix, though the surrounds do get the occasional chore. The score is bright and dynamic, while dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized.
Orange County comes with neither a slipcover nor a digital code. Extras include a commentary track by Kasdan and writer Mike White, a handful of deleted scenes, a variety of interstitials, and a theatrical trailer.

With a great comedic cast and very good video and audio, Orange County is a fun movie and a good addition to your collection.

I have to tip my hat to Paramount Home Entertainment. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! was basically a flop when it was released in 2004, but over the years has grown a bit in affection by fans of the light romantic comedy genre. So while it may not have topped anyone’s “this has to be on Blu-ray!” list, Paramount has released it and those are always victories for fans of physical media. Directed by Legally Blonde’s Robert Luketic, the film marks the film debut of Josh Duhamel, who plays the titular character. Tad is in need of some image rehab, so his manager (Sean Hayes) and agent (Nathan Lane) dream up this contest. It’s won by Rosalee (Kate Bosworth), a West Virginia supermarket worker, much to the dismay of her co-worker, Pete (Topher Grace), who has unexpressed feelings for her. The usual rom-com hijinks ensue when Tad begins to actually have feeling for Rosalee.

The 1080p AVC encoded transfer is presented in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It’s a nice video presentation that does what we expect from the Blu-ray format. There’s good detail in faces, environments and textiles, the colour palette is bright with popping primaries, and the black levels actually give us nice detail in the darker scenes.

What did surprise me, for a rom-com that flopped in theatres, was the availability of multiple soundtracks. There’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track as well as German, Spanish (Latin America) and Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, German, Spanish, French and Japanese. It’s a pretty front-heavy mix with limited surround usage, but this is a rom-com not an action flick. Dialogue is clear and well-prioritized.

In terms of extras, there’s no slipcover or digital code. There’s about 22 minutes of short deleted scenes and a gag reel.

Again, an unexpected Blu-ray release from Paramount but it’s a cute little diversion for 96 minutes so if rom-com’s are your thing, you might want to pick Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! up.

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