Collection Update (December 2014 part 1)

How time can fly. It has been a year since my last collection update and having bought more then a small number of films this year I have decided to split this up over the next few weeks in several different posts. Due to the number of release I will only be commenting on specific releases that I fell attention should be brought to. So without further adieu part one of this rather massive collection update.

The film from the above which was easily among the larger surprises of the year was Blue is The Warmest Color. With near universal  acclaim it was a film that I found to be an overly long and bloated film that had plenty of potential that I didn't fell was realized (click here to see my full review). As a fan of Spike Jonze I was very happy to pick up Being John Malkovich which is a film that comes with my highest recommendation. Likewise Edge of Tomorrow was possibly the nicest surprise of the year. I wasn't expecting much and what I got was a tremendous sci fi action film with superb 3d.

Her is another film by Spike Jonze that I can't recommend highly enough. At times purposefully awkward, at other times bitter sweet. It is a film that on paper would likely appear to be a disaster waiting to happen. However thanks to some brilliant direction, acting and of course writing it stunningly is easily amongst the better films of recent memory. Catching Fire is another film I would highly recommend and the blu-ray alternates between it's scope ratio and 1.78:1 (full screen) for the imax scenes which is present throughout the entire time spent in the arena. Sadly the blu-ray does have some flaws, most notably is the film seems bit starved and thus some obvious and ugly banding is sadly present. Of note is this is the American release (which is region locked). The local Australian release does not alternate aspect ratios which some may prefer (especially those with CIH setups).

Whilst the sequel Silent Hill revelation was a travesty (click here to see my full review), the first Silent Hill is personal favourite of mine. Unfortunately the only competent blu-ray release is the French edition which I took the plunge and bought. It not only is the only release approved by the director it is the only one that doesn't have risen black levels that starves the image of any 'pop' resulting in a murky mess (the darkest black appears to be light grey). Thankfully the French release does justice to the film and its gorgeous cinematography. Likewise Super is a film by the director of Guardians of the Galaxy that few seem to have seen. It's premise is very similar to that of the first Kick-Ass film. It however doesn't drop the idea of a nobody trying to act like a super hero in favour of having 'real heroes' (such as Big Daddy and Hit Girl). This is most apparent in the final act and is a film I would recommend to those who are fans of the first Kick-Ass film.