GRIMM: SEASON ONE
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
One of the more popular shows that hit the airwaves last year was the NBC series “Grimm.” Like ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” it plays off of conventions of fairy tales, only this series has a much darker twist.
The story follows Portland homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) who discovers he’s a “Grimm,” which is an bloodline of monster hunters from ancient times. The purpose of Grimms are to rid the world of – or at least keep at bay – the monsters of the fairy tales. However, he soon learns that things are more complicated when he discovers some monsters just wanting to live peacefully. Nick spends his time secretly trying to dispatch evil monsters while working with kind ones to keep the peace.
Overall, I prefer “Grimm” to “Once Upon a Time” for two main reasons. First, “Grimm” is basically a police procedural with a supernatural twist. “Once Upon a Time” is a bit more convoluted and collapses under its own weight. Also, “Grimm” has much better special effects. Sure, it uses digital manipulation – especially when the monsters shift to and from human form – but they don’t rely on godawful digital sets.
Taken as a police procedural, “Grimm” is decent. It’s not stellar writing, but from episode-to-episode, it kept my interest. By doing this, the shows generally give a full story within each show, with only a hint of a follow-through long-form story. I do like a long-form story, but when it’s not done well, it can be brutal.
Though not as grim (if you’ll pardon the pun) as a show like “Supernatural,” it feels like it’s cut from the same cloth. Now, if we can just get Nick’s character to actually communicate with the people he trusts, the show could be pretty good.
The Blu-ray is the way to go with this series, featuring some solid cinematography that really pops in high definition. Plus, with its visual style, it’s more cinematic than most series. The Blu-ray also comes with a nice selection of bonus features on the fifth disc, including deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, highlight reels, audition tapes, VFX progressions and the featurettes “The World of Grimm” and “Grimm: Making Monsters.” Finally, the Blu-ray utilizes branching technology with the interactive “Grimm Guide” to the creatures in the world of the show.
BLUE LIKE JAZZ
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: * (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
It tend to be cynical about a lot of things – from religion and politics to art and school. While I can see people’s passion for such things, they can often annoy me when any of these subjects are approached with a zealous nature. Also, even from my teenage years, I have been irritated by pseudo-intellectual people who honestly believe they’re free thinkers but end up being just like everyone else in a specific group.
It is for these reasons that I found “Blue Like Jazz” to be a real groaner and eye-roller of a film. I know it’s based on a best-selling book that touched many people’s lives as they went to college, but I just didn’t have the patience for it.
The story follows Don (Marshall Allman), a high school graduate from a fiercely conservative Christian town. He attends the extremely liberal Reed College, and his views on politics, religion, life and love are challenged.
There’s no doubt that the years a person spends in college can be life-changing and challenging. However, in today’s world, college has become a four-year-to-whenever extension of high school, offering some people a chance to flop around and “find themselves.” I’m all for people finding out who they are and reevaluating their views of the world. However, spending upwards of $100,000 a year or going into painful debt in order to do so is just silly.
“Blue Like Jazz” reveals the shallowness of the college years in which an otherwise legal adult can act like a child well into his 20s. The movie is supposed to show an awakening of the character, but it shows him clinging to all the problems from his previous world, only swapping ideologies. He longs for acceptance from his pastor and mother at home, and now he longs for acceptance from the schools ironically atheistic “Pope” and cute lesbian friend (because far be it from Hollywood to depict a non-cute lesbian). He swaps anarchy for his rigid home life, and the reality is that neither one is a good choice.
The movie skewers religion, then attempts to give a positive message about it in the most annoying way. Written with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the script feels like it was crafted with no knowledge of religious beliefs, but rather with an outside-looking-in supposition. In the end, it gets nothing right.
I’m sure the 18-year-old kids who will spend the next four or more years having late-night dorm room conversations about their naive views of religion, politics and what they think might be the real world (but really isn’t) will eat this up. But as a guy in my 40s who never appreciated this kind of thing even when I was in college, I couldn’t stand the movie.
There are some nice special features on the Blu-ray, including a audio commentary, deleted scenes, a photo gallery and theatrical trailer. There’s also several featurettes, including “Save Blue Like jazz,” “The Cast,” “The Animator,” “This Is My Story” and “The Music.” Finally, there are two additional videos which chronicle the making of the film, including its successful Kickstarter campaign. These include “Making Blue Like Jazz” and “Master Class: Directing Actors on Set.”
SILENT HOUSE
Blu-ray Review by Kevin Carr
MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5 stars)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars)
Last year, Elizabeth Olsen made quite a splash headlining the chilling thriller “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” a film about a girl trying to escape the clutches of a dangerous cult. This gave her an enormous amount of street cred in the independent film world and went a long way to distance herself and her career from her other sisters, the Olsen Twins.
Now, she’s back with another challenging thriller, “Silent House.” This is a very low-budget film with an interesting catch that you usually only see in extremely independent features. In fact, it was most likely Olsen’s high profile turn in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” that helped this movie get a late winter theatrical release in theaters. As someone who remembers when fringe films got honest-to-god theatrical releases in the 70s and 80s, this was a welcome sight, even if the movie wasn’t all that great.
Based on an Uruguayan film, “Silent House” is a bit of a gimmick. Assembled with one single 86-minute take and no musical soundtrack, the movie is more an experiment as it is a mainstream film. It’s not a found-footage movie, as some have mistaken it for, since the camera does not exist in the narrative of the film. Rather, it’s a chance to see a long-form acting performance by Olsen.
Her character of Sarah finds herself trapped in a house she and her father are refurbishing. The windows are boarded up, and she realizes that an intruder is in the house with her. Sarah first tries to escape the house, and she also tries to save her family. Of course, there’s a secret in the house that she is also meant to discover.
The set-up of the film is intriguing and interesting. There’s some stilted acting moments (more from the few other cast members than Olsen herself, who really does carry the film), but on the whole, things move at a strong pace at the beginning. With a one-shot gimmick film, there are some limitations, though. While the movie delivers fantastic atmosphere and some effective scares, there are many missed opportunities where the camera doesn’t catch the moments with the most impact. Such is the case when trying to capture an entire film in a single take.
It’s also worthwhile to note that there are a few cuts hidden in the film. They only are noticeable in one or two places, so the filmmakers have done a fine job sticking to their own limitations, even if that does deliver a less powerful film.
Like many thrillers, the movie suffers from some third-act problems, and the pay-off at the end isn’t nearly as good as the set-up leads you to believe.
Still, it’s an interesting movie to watch and worth checking out for no other reason than for the mostly effective gimmick.
The Blu-ray includes a feature commentary with the co-directors. As a Universal disc, it also includes access to the pocketBLU app, BD-Live, Digital Copy and UltraViolet features.
