August is a bit of an in between time for Blu-ray releases. This is just before the big summer movies come home, although one of them made an early appearance in this month’s awards. There was some interesting activity in the catalog realm, though nothing as prestigious as the titles that get unveiled for the holiday buying season. Most rewarding for me was that several of the movies I discovered at film festivals this year have already made it to Blu-ray, so I gave them awards for being worthy of space on my shelf.
Slideshow: The Best & Worst Blu-rays of August 2014
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
The Shelf Space Awards: August 2014
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Best New Blu-ray
Ping Pong Summer was a personal revelation to me, allowing me to revisit Ocean City, MD where I vacationed every summer of my childhood. I have been dreaming of Ocean City ever since, so it was great to see the locations in HD. However, Only Lovers Left Alive was such an unexpected surprise for me, I’m equally glad to add that to my shelf.
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Worst New Blu-ray
I didn’t actually request a review copy of a Blu-ray for a movie I already knew I hated, but sometimes these things just arrive at my door anyway. So I popped in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to see if maybe they had the balls to put Shailene Woodley’s deleted scenes on there. They did not. Understandably so, they would’ve had to pay Woodley to use them. But the scenes with Max Dillon’s mom and Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) are ridiculous. The movie looks good on Blu-ray with lots of colors and energetic sequences. Scanning through it, I was reminded the action is actually good. It’s just the context that is so wrong.
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Best Catalogue Blu-ray
Disney released five catalog titles including the animated movies The Legend of Ichabod and Mr. Toad/Fun and Fancy Free, Hercules, Tarzan and The Three Musketeers, as well as the live-action hybrid Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The pure animated movies look phenomenal, particularly the ‘90s era Summer blockbusters. You can trace the evolution of animation from elegant cells and brush strokes to the eye-popping HD colors of the digital animation era.
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Worst Catalogue Blu-ray
Without much notice, Warner Home Video dropped that other movie called The Avengers on Blu-ray. It was a notorious bomb in the Summer of 1998, based on the British spy show, although my critique here is not of the movie. It’s the bare bones Blu-ray of it. I know it’s not going to be a popular release, but the film was cut down to a minimal 89 minutes. If it’s too much trouble to reassemble the original cut, at least find those deleted scenes. Big failures are learning experiences for the cinema community, and if your’e going to bother to put it out, have some fun with it.
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Best Foreign Blu-ray
Cohen Media restored the director’s cut of Patrice Cherau’s Cannes winner. It looks good, although it has an interesting approach to grain. The picture is sharp but it doesn’t look clear. The grain that’s there doesn’t have the look of film grain dancing around celluloid, but rather digital pixels. It’s an aesthetic choice and it remains consistent throughout the film, so once you settle in on the restoration, you’re transported back to 16th Century France.
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Best TV on Blu-ray
The fourth season of the hit show came out this month. If you’ve been collection all this time, you already know how the show looks on Blu-ray. The look of Georgia locations is pretty consistent no matter what expanse of the country it’s doubling for. The picture is sharp for all the juicy zombie detail, and the green of the forests look pretty stark in the zombie apocalypse. If you splurge, this Blu-ray comes with a cool McFarlane Toys model of a zombie.
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Best Cover Art
Wait, I’m not making my same old joke that the best cover art is the one with my quote on it. I mean, I am quoted on the front cover of They Came Together but it actually wins this award for the back cover. Under the credits for the film is a note that reads: “PLEASE NOTE: NEW YORK CITY PLAYS SUCH A CENTRAL ROLE IN THIS STORY, IT IS ALMOST LIKE ANOTHER CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE.” It’s so small you might miss it, but it is an important joke in the film, and in my interview with David Wain and Michael Showalter, it is brilliant that they continue this riff on the rear cover. And if New York is such a character in the film, you have to see it in HD!
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Worst Cover Art
Nice try redoing the cover art after a theatrical bomb. Does this ever work? Do people ever rent or buy a theatrical failure in demonstrably higher numbers because there’s a new picture? Not that the theatrical poster was anything memorable, but it’s just the principle.
