“Deception” on BLU RAY – A Review

"...This Isn't A Negotiation..." – Deception on BLU RAY

Mild-mannered accountant Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) sits alone at his laptop in the plush boardroom of yet another New York high-rise mega-company doing employee audits. It’s 10:30 pm and he’s still working.

From out of nowhere – Jonathan is joined by the handsome and very slick Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman) – a lawyer who is clearly living a life poor McQuarry could only dream of. Bose feels sorry for the sad number cruncher - stays for a chat that soon becomes a shared spliff – joking about life (or the lack of it) as they watch the city go by on the streets down below. Next thing you know they’re playing tennis together – Jonathan sees Wyatt’s fabulous apartment – his uber babe lifestyle in city bars – his equally well-heeled work colleagues…

Then by accident at lunch in the park one afternoon – Jonathan mixes up his mobile with Wyatt’s – and that night while Wyatt is in London closing a business deal – he get’s a phonecall from a sexy female executive voice asking if "...he’s free tonight?" Jonathan soon works out that playboy Wyatt is part of a group of sex connoisseurs – powerful people enjoying anonymity and physical liaisons in plush hotels around New York because they’re on "The List". He takes a chance and soon he’s engaging in hot passion with gorgeous corporate women on "The List" who would never have looked at him twice.

But then one night in yet another hotel room - in walks a blonde girl he saw on the subway that he really liked (Michelle Williams) – and an immediate spark is lit between them. He doesn't want her to take clothes off - but talk - like normal human beings. But just as the relationships is moving away from call girl to partner – he wakes up in yet another strange room with one too many drinks taken and her naked body is missing – replaced with bloodied sheets. Then Wyatt suddenly turns up and he’s not the nice guy he once seemed. And on top of corporate blackmail - the woman Jonathan now loves - is in danger from this oily confidence man…

Directed by Marcel Laggenegger in 2008 - Mark Bomback’s razor-sharp script is brilliant – twisting and turning and constantly leading you astray. It’s helped by a trio of superbly chosen actors – McGregor as the put upon nobody who must become a somebody – Jackman as the smiling beguiling snake who knows how to press the emotional buttons in suckers – and Michelle Williams as the reluctant participant – caught up in something that gets out of hand – even murderous…

The BLU RAY picture quality is top notch – beautifully filmed to give it that silver-suit office slickness (Aspect Ratio 2.40:1). Extras include a feature length Commentary with the Director, a Making Of called “Exposing The Deception”, Deleted Scenes and a feature on the various nightclubs called “Club Sexy”. Audio is English 5.1 DTS and English 2.0 Dolby Digital - while the lone Subtitle is English SDH.

"Deception" on BLU RAY is a superb thriller with brains, cool, sexiness and angles you didn’t see coming. Play the game with this one…

“Dante’s Peak” on BLU RAY – A Review

"...Second-Best Place To Live In America..." - Dante's Peak on BLU RAY

Setting aside the ludicrous premise of a magmatic eruption in rural USA - "Dante's Peak" (if you'll forgive the volcanic pun) - is a real blast. And it's a looker on BLU RAY too.

Pierce Brosnan plays Harry Dalton of the United States Geological Survey who is sent to the sleepy town of Dante's Peak - overlooked by a dormant volcano. Four years earlier Harry lost his ladylove Mary Ann to a blast he and his pick-up truck couldn't outrun - so his bosses think him good at his job - but also over-zealous when it comes to predictions.

Harry meets the town Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) and her family of two kids (Jamie Renee Smith and Jeremy Foley as Lauren and Graham) and soon forms a bond with them. But Harry also finds that the town has recently been awarded the "...2nd Best Place To Live In The USA..." - and the council is eager to keep the $18 million investment of an incoming conglomerate called Blair Industries. Unfortunately they are also a little too willing to overlook the Geologist's warnings that something is going on with the wizened trees, dead wildlife and rising acidity levels in the lake beneath the waking giant. And on it goes to a jug of water shaking on a table at a town meeting and all Hell then breaking loose...

When the big bang/property destruction finally does arrive - Dante's Peak disintegrates with real special effects style and believability - Director Roger Donaldson delivering on set piece after set piece. Brosnan looks fantastic - as does Hamilton - and there's convincing chemistry between them, the kids and Nanny Ruth (Elizabeth Hoffman). Right up to the end - the tension and drama is poured on - danger coming in lava flows through the kitchen, boat trips across sulphuric acid lakes, clouds of molten ash in rotary blades and finally to a crushed car in a disused mine.

Given a budget in excess of $100 million in 1997 - the BLU RAY picture is excellent - especially when it goes to the picturesque town and surrounding mountains (idyllic). The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 rattles your speakers with explosions that will wake the neighbours. Other Audio includes French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese DTS-Surround 5.1 - while Subtitles include English SDH, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Traditional Mandarin.

"Dante's Peak" is a properly entertaining movie on BLU RAY with a great cast and effects that impress to this day. Boil your bottom on this little hottie...

“Centurion” on BLU RAY – A Review

"...A Soldier Of Rome Never Yields..." – Centurion on BLU RAY

A cleaved and semi-naked soldier is stumbling across a snowy tundra landscape with both of his hands tied in front of him. Quintus Dias is alone in this hostile terrain (Michael Fassbender) – and running from something far more terrifying than wild wolves eager to dig their teeth into his flesh. He’s trying to outpace a barbarous tribe called The Picts…

We now go to two weeks earlier and Quintus is in full breastplate protective uniform standing on the wooden ramparts of Inch-Tuth-Il – the Northernmost Roman Garrison in Britania 117 AD (close to Scotland). "Even the land wants us dead…" he says ominously as he looks out at the dimly lit night. A few moments later and another guerrilla raid will bring that prophecy to fruition. Soon Quintus is in their midst – face to face with their fearsome Pict leader Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen) and then forced to fight a woman more blood-thirsty than a vampire – a Pict warrior called Etain who kills without mercy and doesn’t speak (Olga Kurylenko). 

But Quintus escapes and links up with the legendary Ninth Legion out of York and their leader General Titus (Dominic West) - sent on a final thrust into the Northern Territories by Governor Julius (Paul Freeman) who harbours political ambitions. Betrayed by their supposedly loyal guide – disaster follows in a wood ambush – and soon Etain and her merciless Picts are hunting Quintus and a small band of survivors…

Written and Directed by Neil Marshall in 2008 – "Centurion" did bugger all business at the box office which I think is unfair to it. Sure we’ve been in this slice-and-dice territory before – but here we get great actors like Dominic West (The Wire), Paul Freeman (Raiders Of The Lost Ark), Ulrich Thomsen (Fringe and Banshee), Liam Cunningham (Game Of Thrones), Andreas Wisniewski (Die Hard and Mission Impossible) and David Morrissey (Thorne). And under all that muck and facial warpaint - we even get a double whammy of beauties – the "Quantum Of Solace" bond girl Olga Kurylenko - brilliantly cast as a mute female terminator who can smell you on the wind. Countering her is the gorgeous wild-haired Imogen Poots as a healing necromancer/witch – disfigured and cast out into the woods by her own – a wilderness that might just offer Quintus a future away from generals all too willing to sacrifice him and his men in the name of Rome’s glory…

The BLU RAY picture quality is top notch – beautifully filmed on rugged and wild mountain terrain in Autumn and Winter (night and day) to give it that mud-and-blood feel (Aspect Ratio 2.35:1). The Extras are pleasingly comprehensive - full of the actors commenting and joking on set. There's features about Blood and Gore – Stunts - purpose built villages and wooden forts - and the physical difficulty of shooting in some dangerous and inhospitable locations. Audio is English 5.1 DTS Master Audio and English Audio Description 2.0 Stereo - while the lone Subtitle is English For The Hard of Hearing.

"Centurion" wishes it was "Gladiator" and clearly isn’t (what film is). But it's a very entertaining watch and a proper blood-splattered looker on BLU RAY.

Don your Toga boys and get the Daz ready – you’re gonna get down and dirty on this one…

2014 Panasonic Viera A400 Widescreen LCD TV (50" and 42" Models) - A Review

I wanted to live with this 2014 Panasonic Viera A400 LCD Television Set (50" Model) for a few weeks before doing a review and I'm glad I did. In a nutshell - I'm really pleased with it and enjoying its huge range of facilities - but there are few things worth discussing and pointing out for prospective buyers.

Our home was previously the proud owner of a Sony BRAVIA LED 42" TV for over five years and going to another brand was going to be a gamble. So why move? The reason is price. These big televisions used to be £2000 two years ago - now the 2014 42" Panny is £350 and their 50" model is less than £500 (we actually got ours for £480 through a large retailer). That's incredible value for money for what you're getting.

The first couple of days made me feel disappointed after the clarity of the Sony - but of course it took a while for the screen to burn in and the picture quickly graduated to gorgeous. For instance the World Cup on ITV HD looks fabulous - as clear and as steady as you could hope for. But when you go back to Freeview and standard mode on Terrestrial TV - the quality naturally dips. But this will be the same on all TVs - and that's unfortunately a source problem few of us can do anything about (once you discover HD - you'll find it hard to watch anything else).

It's wide and skinny - and despite the sheer size of the outer box - deceptively light. The Panasonic has 5 Picture Aspects to choose from - Dynamic, Normal, Cinema, True Cinema and Game. I personally found anything except Dynamic too dull for my tastes. There are controls on Backlight, Contrast, Sound and even a Child Lock (and loads more). The 'Guide' Button throws up a TV Channels Menu that is easy to use and very clean once onscreen - and I personally like that the remote is small rather than long (easier to navigate). The set itself comes with its own stand (two people needed to mount it) or you can wall hang too of course (needs brackets). It searched out the channels during set-up automatically and we were off and running in minutes.

It has 2 HDMI sockets at the rear (when ideally it should be three) - so when both your DVD/BLU RAY player and your set-top box are plugged in - both HDMIs are used and there's no room for a games console. You can of course remove one HDMI lead and stick in another but that's a hassle few want. Machines with three HDMI sockets usually cost more. With regard to socket connectivity - here's what you actually get on the rear panels:

1. Digital Audio

2. Two x HDMI

3. AVI (Scart)

4. Ethernet

5. AV2 (Component / Video)

6. Terrestrial Aerial Socket

7. Headphone Jack

8. USB Port

9. CI Slot.

There is also Media Player Aspects to the television accessible via the remote. Insert a USB Flash Memory Stick and you can use Photo, Music and Movie Modes. I couldn't detect any Apps other than Freeview (I'm open to correction on this) - we get iPlayer etc. via our BLU RAY player.

The next thing to discuss is size. It depends completely on the room you're in. If you're telly room is small - then go for the 42" version of the A400 and don't think twice about it. It's truly staggering value for money and when using full 1080 HD - has a picture to die for. But if you've a room large enough to accommodate the 50" and enough distance to sit away from it - then go for that because it's a game changer - especially when you're viewing movies either from a download or a DVD or BLU RAY.

To give a simple example of this - I bought the BLU RAY reissue of "One Fine Day" starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer - which looked very good indeed on the 42". It's defaulted to Full Aspect Ratio so the picture fills the entire screen. But when allowed the stretch to 50”, which extends the view on both the left and the right - it becomes an altogether different cinematic beast. It absolutely rocks because it's the first time we've felt cinema has actually come into our home. The detail and hugeness is amazing. Of course - it can also have the opposite effect - be 'too' big. Stretching of the image can be a problem - and you do need space away from the screen to 'not' see the blemishes. But in truth - once you've gone big (if you'll forgive the phallic pun) - it's hard to go back to the little guy. In place of a Soundbar - we've also hooked the stereo (via a Marantz Amp) to the speaker jacks at the back of the telly (using QED Silver Anniversary cables with quality plugs) and the audio is rocking too.

The other aspect to all TV sets nowadays is downloads. As there are no Apps on the Panasonic (this is not one of the Sony Smart TVs that charges you handsomely for the privilage) - we used our cheap £70 Sony BLU RAY player to stream BBC iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon's Love Film/Prime. I find the quality on Amazon to be average at best - and the TV choices old and useless. In comparison to Netflix they really need to get their act together. They also charge handsomely for anything that's relatively new or half decent and their 'no pence' film offerings are uninspired and often dire.

Netflix is the opposite. Whoever chooses the movies for them looks for goodies the viewers have either forgotten or not seen at all ("Ondine", "IQ", "The Secret In Their Eyes", "Dot The I", "Love Is All You Need", "Gone Baby Gone" etc.) Also - when you're downloading from Netflix the Super HD mode will kick in - and this Panasonic with its full 1080 HD quality puts a picture on screen that defies belief (Season 2 of "Orange Is The New Black" and "House Of Cards" both look incredible). You're sat there thinking - is this really a download - because its hard to tell the difference between a stream and a BLU RAY. Good examples of films looking stunning on the Panny from download are "Seabiscuit", "Priceless", "Moonstruck", "Populaire" and "The Giant Mechanical Man" (or "Love In Detroit" as its called in some territories - see review). For TV with super picture quality - check out "Parade's End", the BBC's "Emma" with Romali Garai and Jonny Lee Miller and of course "Breaking Bad". 

Overall - this is a fabulous television set that's within most people's budget. Whether you chose a 50" or a 42" model - these new Panasonics make for a dynamic duo indeed...

"Matthews' Southern Comfort/Second Spring" by MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT [feat Ian Matthews] (1996 and 2008 Beat Goes On CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

"…Leave This Troubled World Behind…"

Few bands got to release three albums in one year (Fairport Convention and Creedence Clearwater Revival did it in 1969) – but Britain's Folk-Rock outfit MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT featuring Ian Matthews (ex Fairport Convention) managed it in 1970. And that’s where this fabulous Beat Goes On '2LPs-on-1CD' Reissue comes in. Here are the comforting details...

Originally UK released June 1996 - "Matthews Southern Comfort/Second Spring" by MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT on Beat Goes On BGOCD 313 (reissued December 2008 with the same Catalogue No and Barcode 5017261203137) offers two full albums onto 1CD Remaster and plays out as follows (76:06 minutes):

1. Colorado Springs Eternal

2. A Commercial Proposition

3. The Castle Far

4. Please Be My Friend

5. What We Say

6. Dream Song

7. Fly Pigeon Fly

8. The Watch

9. Sweet Bread

10. Thoughts For A Friend

11. I’ve Lost You

12. Once Upon A Lifetime

Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut vinyl album "Matthews' Southern Comfort" - released January 1970 in the UK on Uni Records UNLS 108 and Decca DL 75191 in the USA (both in gatefold sleeves and with an insert)

13. The Ballad Of Obray Ramsey

14. Moses In The Sunshine

15. Jinkson Johnson

16. Tale Of The Trial

17. Blood Red Roses

18. Even As

19. D’arcy Farrow

20. Something In The Way She Moves

21. Southern Comfort

Tracks 13 to 21 are their 2nd LP "Second Spring" - released June 1970 in the UK on Uni Records UNLS 112 and Decca DL 75242 in the USA (both with an insert)

The eagle-eyed collectors among you will notice that there are two non-album 7" single B-sides from the period that are missing. First is "The Struggle" - a B-side to "Colorado Springs Eternal" - the only single lifted off the debut album on Uni Records UNS 513 issued in January 1970. Second is "Parting" - a B-side to "Ballad Of Obray Ramsey" - the only 7" taken off the 2nd LP on Uni Records UNS 521 issued May 1970. Not to fear - they are both BONUS TRACKS on the "Later That Same Year" Beat Goes On CD remaster (BGOCD 807) along with both sides of their other non-album single - "Woodstock" b/w "Scion" (see separate review).

The 16-page booklet cleverly reproduces the gatefold inner of the debut LP on its inner spread while the lyric sheets that accompanied both original LPs have been reproduced also - but using the drawing face shots on the back sleeve of the 2nd LP in between text (its nicely done). The short but hugely informative liner notes are by noted Musicologist JOHN TOBLER.

The remaster was done back in 1996 at Sound Recording Technology in Cambridge (doesn't say who) and it's really sweet - especially on the far better recorded second LP.

The debut was meant to be an Ian Matthews solo album. In fact the band's name was a mistake - named after the last track on the second LP "Southern Comfort" (written by Sylvia Fricker). But Matthews Southern Comfort somehow stuck. In fact when Ian Matthews left - the group continued as "Southern Comfort" on Harvest Records. And yet despite its lavish gatefold sleeve and the inclusion of heavyweight Fairport Convention players like Gerry Conway, Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson and Simon Nichol - the debut LP in my eyes firmly defies flight. Weak songs are the culprits. Looking through the song credits you see the name Steve Barlby - which turns out to be a pseudonym for songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikeley - who were his management team at the time. Part of the recording contract deal was that he had to use some of their songs - and bluntly they're not what the MSC sound was about. The other pseudonym on "Fly Pigeon Fly" is Hamwood - which turns out to be the duo of Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood. The organ on "Thoughts For A Friend" is clumsy - "The Castle Far" sounds like some dreadful madrigal - but "A Commercial Proposition" written by Richard Thompson is more like it.

"Second Spring" is everything the debut should have been - it's properly brilliant and has stood the test of time too. The presence of ace guitarist and melody strong Carl Barnwell makes his presence known with "Moses In The Sunshine" and "Even As" - which like "Woodstock" practically defines the mellow sound that people love them for. The Traditional "Blood Red Roses" is done Acapella and is gorgeous - as is the impossibly pretty Matthews original "Tale Of The Trial". I've always felt that their stunning cover of James Taylor's Apple debut song "Something In The Way She Moves" should have been the lead off single instead of the banjo plucking "Ballad Of Obray Ramsey" - it's a gem (lyrics from it title this review). It ends on the epic eight minute "Southern Comfort" which feels like Fairport in full flight meets MSC. Very tasty...

So there you have it - a debut that promises much but delivers little - and a follow up that nails it. Their third and last album "Later That Same Year" followed in November of 1970 and was just as strong as "Second Spring" (the CD remaster of "Later" also contains those four quality bonus tracks - see separate review).

"Matthews' Southern Comfort / Second Spring" is a really lovely CD reissue by Beat Goes On of the UK - and brings back such fond memories...