Fatal Attraction - Buy from Amazon
The second biggest hit of 1987, this movie stars Michael Douglas as a family man who has an affair with Glenn Close. Turns out, she's a little nuts and when he tries to break it off, she won't let him. When the film first came out, it earned excellent reviews and was a massive hit, topping the charts for nearly two months. But watching it now it feels terribly dated, and more than a little silly at times. Some have complained that the movie is sexist by implying a strong businesswoman will be possessive, obsessive, etc., but I think this is reading too much into the movie. It's not a deep enough movie to judge it that way.

As for the Blu-ray, it is almost shovelware, but not quite. All the extras from the Special Edition are here (a rather dry audio commentary track with the director, a retrospective, two featurettes, and what appears to be screen tests). There is also the original, and superior ending, that is presented in High Definition with an intro. (They really should have kept this ending in the movie. Had they done that, I would have given it an overall positive review.) The movie looks better than it does on DVD, but not by enough to make the Blu-ray worth upgrading for that reason alone. The audio is unspectacular, and doesn't do much with my rear speakers.

Indecent Proposal - Buy from Amazon
Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson star as a young married couple who are overextended financially so they travel to Las Vegas for one big gamble to hope to win the money they need to stay afloat. ... These people are morons. When that plan goes south, they agree to sell the wife for one night to Robert Redford for $1 million. Take the money and run. This movie is a morality tale about what people will do for money, and how it will affect their relationship afterward. Here's the problem, these two people should clearly not be married. When making a movie about a marriage that is falling apart, it is important to show the audiences why these two people got married in the first place. They don't do that here. Their marriage might be passionate, but it is not based on any real solid emotional foundation. Had they not gotten into financial trouble in the first place, their marriage would have ended regardless, so there's little drama to be mined from the premise.

The only extra on the Blu-ray is a rather tepid audio commentary track with the director. Also, the audio and video can be described as average, at best. There really is nothing here that sells the High Definition format.

Two films from director Adrian Lyne are making their Blu-ray debuts this week. One of them was beloved by critics, the other was not, both were big hits theatrically, but neither is really worth the $20 to upgrade. However, if I were to pick one, Fatal Attraction is by far the better movie, and the Blu-ray is at least worth a rental.

An excellent show that deals with its subject in a way that is both dramatic, without feeling exploitative, which is quite a tightrope to walk. The family drama, the interventions, and dealing with his crew of fellow recovering addicts brings a lot to the show. There are some issues, including the believability of some of the situations. Some of the facts were changed for dramatic purposes, which seems rather unnecessary. Also, with so many addicts on the show, there's not as much variety in the character types as I would like. On the other hand, the performances are almost universally amazing; here's one aspect of the show where it is great to have consistency.

Extras on the 4-disc set are strong with audio commentary tracks on two episodes. This includes the pilot, but only the broadcast version and not the extended cut. I would have rather had it the other way around. Five of the thirteen episodes also have deleted scenes. Over on disc one there is a short featurette on William Banks done by the actors playing their characters. It's one of the more unique featurettes I've seen, and it is definitely worth checking out. There are Music Excerpts on disc two and three. Finally, disc four has interviews, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and outtakes. I would have liked a few more audio commentary tracks, perhaps with a more varied group of cast members, but what we get is worth checking out.

Overall, season one of The Cleaner is an easy recommendation. The show is well written, has a fantastic cast, and the four-disc set has more than enough extras to rate above a rental. Also of note, season two starts on A&E on June 23rd. Check it out.

CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - Season One - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
TV on DVD is a relatively new market for studios and only really came into its own over the past few years. Now that DVD is on the way out, and Blu-ray is replacing it, it will be interesting to see how fast that market comes into prominence. There are some issues with most similar releases, including the lack of exclusive extras, price compared to the DVD, as well as weakness in the source material when it comes to the audio and video (the High Definition you see on TV does not have the same resolution as the High Definition that is standard on Blu-ray). Are these problems present here?

CSI stars William L. Petersen stars as Gil Grissom, the head of the night shift of the Las Vegas Crime Lab, whose keen analytical mind helps him and his team crack the toughest cases. One of roughly seventeen billion police procedural shows on TV, it is part of the most popular TV franchise going right now. Compared to the oldest current franchise, Law & Order, it deals a lot more with the personalities of the character. You learn more about some of the characters' personal lives during the pilot of CSI than you did about some of the characters that lasted years on Law & Order. And I kind of like that about Law & Order. However, it also doesn't have the "hooks" used by some similar shows, like Castle, for instance, which is a great show, but I don't think it will still be on air in a decade. This does give it better longevity than those that rely on a hook, but a more personal touch than those that rely on the cases. It's an excellent mixture.

I've reviewed a few CSI releases in the past, and I've been impressed by the level of extras. However, season one was a little weak compared to more recent seasons. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of extras including the unaired pilot with audio commentary track, deleted scenes, outtakes, and two featurettes. Some more recent seasons have audio commentary tracks on substantially more episodes (roughly one per disc, as opposed to one per DVD) but the extras are still solid here.

As for the Blu-ray exclusives, it's a bit mixed. The discs are BD-Live enabled, but so far there are just a few video clips, as well as text bios. This is not a huge amount, but it is better than a lot of BD-Live discs give you. The video quality is good, but not great. Certainly better than on DVD, and even better than watching it on High Definition on TV, but not as strong as the best Blu-ray has to offer. (It is presented in 16:9 widescreen for the first time, which might be enough on its own for some fans to upgrade.) The audio gets a boost to 7.1 surround sound, which is great news for me, as I just upgraded to 7.1 sound system, so I was really looking forward to putting my new Onkyo 607 and 540 speakers through their first test. The good news is the dialogue was very clear, but there are not a wealth of special effects and the rear speakers were not exactly given a workout.

CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - Season One - Blu-ray is typical of many such releases. Given the improvement in the quality of the audio and video, as well as the few clips presented on BD-Live, I think the $60 price-tag is a little high when compared to the $36 it would cost to buy the more recent season on DVD. That said, this is on par with most TV on Blu-ray releases, and I think that most fans of the show who have made the leap to Blu-ray will be willing to pay the premium for high definition.

Eden Log - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
I just have the Blu-ray and the DVD will not be showing up later on. I would much rather have it this way than the other way around.

Normally I review movies using the five-paragraph formula: A short intro, a paragraph on the plot, a paragraph on the quality of the movie, a paragraph on the extras, and finally a conclusion. However, this is nearly impossible here, as there is almost nothing I can say about the movie without spoiling it. When the film starts, you have no idea who the protagonist is, where the movie takes place, or even when it takes place, and neither does the protagonist. For the next 100 or so minutes, you follow the main character as he tries to figure out the answers to those questions, and anything I say about the movie, either it's plot or its quality, will spoil much of it. I will say that the movie does present a certain mystery, one that almost demands being watched more than once, but I don't think most will want to. Visually, the film is interesting, but much of the time the plot is not.

As for the extras, the Blu-ray has the original French version, in Standard Definition, and that's it. This version is about four-and-a-half minutes shorter, so it's not just a matter of a different audio track, but I'm sure with Blu-ray technology, you could create a branching system to showcase both versions in High Definition, which would have been a real boon, because the dubbing on the English-language version is ... less than impressive at times. (Some of the acting is bad enough to ruin the experience for some people. It certainly took me out of the movie more than once.)

Eden Log is a movie that will either draw you into its visual world and you will want to watch it multiple times, in which case the Blu-ray is worth buying. Or it will turn you off and you won't be able to sit through it the first time. Because of this, I'm calling it a solid rental, so you can try before you buy, but go in with back up. Don't make this movie your only selection for the evening.

The film focuses on a family headed by Alan Rickman, who learns at the beginning of the movie that he is winning a Nobel Prize. However, his family life is not a happy one. He's cheating on his wife with one of his students, he's constantly disappointed in his son, which probably explains why when his son is kidnapped, he thinks it's a hoax perpetrated by his son to get out of going to Sweden to be at the Award Ceremony. It's not. However, all is not cut and dried for Barkley, as it turns out he and his kidnapper have something in common, perhaps enough to form an uneasy alliance?

This film is a thriller with elements of heist movies and dark comedies thrown in, all wrapped up in so many twists that it either creates a a wondrous plot that is a marvel to watch unfold, or it eventually becomes a mass of confusion that collapses under its own weight. Looking at the reviews, it seems the latter opinion outnumbers the former by about a three to one margin. I'm right down in the middle on this one. I liked several of the performances in the movie, and I thought the writing was good, but I think it needed one more pass to tighten it up, and remove some of the "confusing for the sake of confusion" elements. Worth watching, but with limited replay value.

Extras on the DVD are better than expected, especially given the film's box office troubles, but only average for a limited release. Things start of with an audio commentary track that includes the writer / director, the other writer, the cinematographer, and two of the cast members. Good mix of information and entertainment. There are three deleted scenes, which include option audio commentary, which run just under five minutes. Finally, there is a 13-minute making-of featurette.

Nobel Son absolutely bombed at the box office with one of the worst opening per theater averages for a film playing in that many theaters. It's not as bad as that performance suggests, but it is hard to call the DVD much more than a rental.

Raymond Burr stars as the titular Perry Mason, a lawyer who works all manner of cases from wills, to contract work, to finding a little girl's lost lineage. No matter what the case, it always seems to end in murder, with his client at the center of suspicion. Yes, the pattern repeats itself nearly every episode, but for the most part that doesn't really hurt the show. Granted, there were a couple of episodes where the big reveal seemed to come out of left field, and I didn't appreciate that. However, most of the episodes are still very strong. I would rate 12 of the 16 episodes on this 4-disc set as hits, which is a good batting average.

On a side note, on the first episode of this DVD, one of the characters is a irresponsible playboy type and while watching I couldn't get over how much the actor looked like a young Robert Redford. A little bit of research later and I figured out why he looked so much like a young Robert Redford. It was a young Robert Redford. Also, episode three has a guest shot by William Campbell, a.k.a. Trelane and Koloth from Star Trek.

On the downside, there are no extras on this 4-disc set, nor are there subtitles. They do have "play all" buttons and proper chapter placements. Most significantly, the season has been split into to volumes, which is the number one complaint of fans of the show.

Perry Mason is a classic show and it still stands up all these years later. (I do laugh at the state of forensics used here. There's no DNA, no fiber analysis, etc. The cops scratch their mark into the murder weapons to identify them. More than once I thought to myself, "Wear a pair of gloves when you handle that!") Season Four - Volume One is not a good example on how to put out a classic show like this, as there are no extras and the season is split into two volumes, but the show itself is still worth picking up.