It has taken me too long to see Micmacs. As a self-confessed Jeunet fanboy I should have seen this in the cinema but it passed me by. Glad I finally got round to getting the Blu-ray.

Let’s run through the Jeunet checklist:

1. Quirky characters and plot ✔
2. Great and varied cast ✔
3. Imagination in spades ✔
4. Looks beautiful ✔
5. Not Alien Resurrection ✔
6. Yellow filter ✔

As you can see, we’re already on to a winner. So, the story. How about “Loveable loser takes revenge on 2 arms companies with the help of a quirky collection of misfits“? That about covers it. Except that it is told in Jeunet’s signature style of comic art imagination and visual invention. What can go wrong when you have a guy with a bullet in his head, an ex-con, a gadget man, a contortionist and number geek helping to barrel the plot along.

Visually, the Blu-Ray print is stunning. Jeunet’s films are generally beautiful and on Blu-Ray the whole thing really pops. The night scenes in particular are glorious and throughout the interior production design bristles with style – think Hudsucker Proxy meet Lucky Number Slevin (for the office scenes at least).

You can see some of the night time awesomeness in this trailer.

The performances are also excellent, the strength and variety of characterisation at work here stands out above the plot itself and Dany Boon as the lead is brilliant.

As gang capers go, the plot isn’t the strongest. Micmacs doesn’t have any intricacy woven into it, it’s a straightforward approach to an older style of revenge/heist plot which is brought to life and made modern by the approach to telling it and unerring innovation. Although the schemes at work have some complexity, you are a little outside of the plot so things just happen and you’re not taken along with the plan as it goes. Some of the plotting gets a little slow in places but is always helped out by nice touches and quirks. Fans of Social Media will particularly appreciate the viral aspect of the closing sequences.

As a comedy it won’t have you laughing out loud, as a thriller it won’t have you gripped by as an overall movie experience both in looks and content it never fails to entertain. Imagination and beauty, Jeunet at his best.

So where is “A Very Long Engagement” on Blu-Ray? Get on with it people.

It has blockbuster written all over it. Black and white, in German set just before the start of the First World War. Hand me the popcorn, I’m set. Although, being a Michael Haneke film it is about as far from Hollywood as you are likely to get.

Despite being the second Blu-Ray review I’ve done of a Haneke film ( check out the Caché review here ) I’m no fan boy. His films are not a flurry of excited enjoyment. As with Caché, there is much to consider, debate and ponder and most of that is done after the film has finished. You never get a feeling of satisfaction at the credits.

Let’s deal with the basics. A small German village is beset with a series of unfortunate events (no, not those ones) which seem to be a punishment for some unspoken crimes. These lead up to the outbreak of the First World War and the people worrying about what that will mean for them.

The story is told through the eyes of the village schoolteacher a narrator many years after the events ( reminscent of the narration in The Name of the Rose ). The action moves with an very slow pace, it’s like the most suspenseful of Hitchcock drawn out in slow motion. Not that there are ever any great shocks or surprises, it is the almost mundane treatment of the events that make the point.

The film is a long essay on evil. But not the Hannibal Lecter bitey kind, the more chilling everyday evil that wanders hidden through society (ooh, hark at me). It suggests that terrorism exists everywhere, not just its traditional forms. I was also reminded of the themes from many of the novels in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart which also focus on the darker side of ‘normal’ life, especially La Bête Humaine which has a similar brooding evil and is also set at the outbreak of a war.

The acting stands out with some truly excellent performances from some very believable child actors. Given the pace of the film, the acting has to be exceptional.

This could easily be a still from a German remake of To Kill A Mockingbird. But this is not a scene of hope in the style of Atticus, this is us faced with the faces of the villagers in the, perhaps certain, knowledge that at least one of them has been a bit naughty.

With regard to the Blu-Ray itself. Some disappointment here. There are a lot of dark scenes were the artefacting is pretty horrendous, smooth clean blacks they ain’t. You can just about cope though as it isn’t all that frequent. My main gripe is about the black and white itself. The film was shot in colour and converted to black and white and all too often, the scenes are too grey. Maybe this is just the photographer in me wanting it done a different way. I’m sure they must have considered this and chosen to do it this way to match a particular style of old, but I wasn’t a fan. I would have preferred more contrast and sharpness overall. There are some good images, very white vistas of fields and trees look good but in the acted scenes it can look a bit bland. As I say, that could be a personal thing as I would have gone with a Gorman-Holbert type conversion on the lot.

I enjoyed The White Ribbon whilst not been blown away by it. I think this is largely because of my objections to the print niggling at me too much. The mood, characters and acting are all excellent. If you like immersive, challenging cinema, it’s well worth a look but I think a DVD copy would suffice.

I pre-ordered the A Serious Man Blu-Ray as soon as it was available. Having seen it in the cinema I was very keen to watch it again and, amazingly, it arrived two days before the announced release date. Being a big Coens fan, I’m never really going to have a bad word to say but unlike, say, Intolerable Cruelty or The Ladykillers, I only have the most excellent of words available for this film.

It’s important to make one thing clear. This isn’t the Coens of Burn After Reading or The Big Lebowski. Arguably their most personal film to date, it may not be for everyone, but it should be.

So, the subject matter in itself may not inspire all. Jewish physics professor, divorce and draining sebaceous glands don’t add up to say ‘summer blockbuster’ but this is a good thing. This film is thoughtful, it has a point if you want to look for it but it is also entertaining enough in itself for the point not having to matter.

The story details the slow destruction of the life of a Jewish physics professor,played by the excellent Michael Stuhlbarg. His wife is leaving him for a family friend ( and great performance by Fred Melamed), his University are receiving mail about him, a student is giving him hassle, his troubled brother becomes more and more of a burden. And all this happens to him despite him doing everything he can to live a decent life, be a serious man. In short, shit happens.

The film is crammed with so many quintessentially quirky Coen moments . The dialogue is a fizzy and intriguing as ever and much of the detail is clearly fuelled by the Coen’s own upbringing. The story told by the second Rabbi is particularly entertaining.

Having now watched it again, I’m happy to say that my original enjoyment of the film didn’t diminish and the cracking Blu-Ray print just adds to the experience. Visually the film is very subdued in colour but still manages to spring off the screen. The transfer is really very good and warrants getting this film on Blu-Ray.

For the photography fans among you, I’m fairly sure the look of this film was inspired by William Eggleston’s Guide. Both the surroundings and the tone are, at times, identical.  Just less tricycles.

Buy this Blu-Ray. Accept the mystery. Watch it and you’ll know what I mean.

I saw this film a few years ago on DVD and, after seeing it listed on BBC Four this week, I went in search of a Blu-Ray version. Currently a snip at £8.

The film itself is not the usual French style-fest, with a complex plot and a lot of action it more resembles a Hollywood movie in it’s style and delivery. Unsurprisingly, it looks like an remake is on the way. If Harrison Ford were younger he’d be a shoe-in for the lead role, requires expertise in ‘familial angst’…

Based on the novel Ne le dis à personne… by Harlan Coben, the film tells the story of a pediatrician 8 years after the murder of his wife as he starts to think she might be alive. Avoiding spoilers at all costs I’ll say no more about the plot other than to say it is as good as it is complex ( very much in the style of that excellent novel The Beatle Man ). And, unlike another film I reviewed here Caché, it does provide a more pleasingly complete dénouement.

Visually, being a city-based thriller, the film was never going to be a stylish beauty but the Blu-Ray print is excellent. Being a thriller, there is a fair bit of dashing around at times with some wild camera work that doesn’t care about image quality but, when required, most scenes pop off the screen very nicely indeed.

I’ve read complaints about the sound in other reviews but it didn’t trouble me overly.

A highly recommended film but not one that absolutely have to see on Blu-Ray ( but for £8 you may as well ). Of course, you should see if before the Hollywood remake so you can say “well, of course, I’ve seen the original French version mwhaa mwhaa mwhaa…<flounce>” and because I have a horrible suspicion that the plot may have to be simplified or heavily clued for the popcorn bucket test audiences.

Other reasons to watch it:

• Kristin Scott Thomas is in it acting in French.
• He drives a big Volvo.
• Jeff Buckley is in the soundtrack. ( so are U2 but we can gloss over that )

They don’t make them like this any more. Except, they do. Well, Woo does. Epic is perhaps slightly overused when it comes to films. You can’t argue if it is applied here. Everything is on a huge scale, not least the 293 minute running time across the two halves.

Red Cliff is actually two films that were originally released 6 months apart. We’ll ignore the much shorter single film Western release. At a pathetic 150 minutes it’s not worthy of consideration.

The film tells the story of the Battle of Red Cliffs which took place in China in 208/9 AD. (The Wikipedia link contains spoilers for obvious reasons!)

This is film making on a very grand scale. Check out this spanking HD trailer, you’ll see what I mean and will give you a far better flavour than my attempts and finding more and more words that mean “big”.

Looks cool, eh? Well, it is. And in Blu-Ray it looks consistently great. The video quality is excellent throughout, helped by some excellent cinematography and vivid colours, especially in the customers. I’m almost certain at one point of the film you will say “nice helmet” with abandon. Sound too is very good although I found the soundtrack to be good not excellent. Not quite of the quality of a Tan Dun meets Yo Yo Ma.

Now, I understand that approaching 5 hours of subtitled Chinese history may not be for everyone. But you could easily watch this as a mini-series spread over 5 nights. You watched Shogun didn’t you? Bet you did. This is MUCH better.

Sometimes the plotting of ‘true’ events can be a little pedestrian, real life doesn’t always have the twists and pace to build tension or surprise – but there is enough artistic license allowed by the lack of known detail that the story entertains consistently. Although I suspect that much of the interesting detail was added by the historians much later.

Obviously, some of the fighting could be seen as a little silly. Single heroic warriors take on large gangs on baddies single-handedly in very choreographed sequences. You either like this or you don’t but it is entirely fitting with the genre and I’m sure it played very well with Chinese audiences. And, I suppose, post-Matrix, we have more of a fondness of it.

For a film that is essentially about a single battle, there is obviously a huge amount of depth around it. So battle lovers may drift off waiting for it to kick off. There are big lull’s between the 3 main battle sequences but these are just as entertaining in their own way. And when the final battles comes, you won’t be disappointed. It makes Helm’s Deep look like a square-go in the playground.

There is some pretty decent CGI woven in here too. The shot of dove flying over Cao Cao’s fleet is rather smart (you can see a short piece of this in the trailer) and I like the shots of the arrows flying straight at the camera.

All in all, it’s a cracking piece of entertainment and should be part of any Blu-Ray collection.

So, if you have a spare 5 hours to waste and you love great looking movies then get Red Cliff, especially as the full two-disc Blu-Ray is only £9 on Amazon.

Mr Woo, what shall I do? I’ll watch Red Cliff again for sure.