DVD Review HTF REVIEW: "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (Highly Recommended!) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

"Inside Look" presents trailers for The Day After Tomorrow and Man On Fire. We also get a look at the production of I, Robot with actor/executive producer Will Smith, director Alex Proyas, actor Bridget Moynahan, and co-producer Steven McGlothen.

 

[Todd Smigelski]

I can't believe they can hack a 2.40:1 widescreen movie like this one - to a 4:3 full screen presentation and the public will purchase it.

 

[Ray H]

I was considering picking up the 2-disc set, but with stores selling it at $30, I may just save my cash.

 

[Alex K.]

I got mine for under 10 Bucks! Good for me

 

[dannyB]

That beats me. I bought if for $15, and its been sitting on my shelf since Thursday.

You all will be very impressed by the packaging. It easily rivals the LOTR EE sets. Way to go Fox!

 

[ChrisMatson]

Any info on those cheap DVDs?

I see that Amazon has it for $25.99 and free shipping.

 

[ZacharyTait]

How the hell did you two manage that? Just curious.

 

[Alex K.]

I had a nice, big voucher for CD-WOW.com so i guess its cheating a little bit ;P

 

[Nick Senger]

For those who live by a Fred Meyer store, they advertised it this morning for $29.99, but they are offering a coupon for 20% of all box set collector's editions. That brings the price down to $23.99.

 

[Alex K.]

30$ aint that bad, its 32.06$ for the single disc version here in denmark :/

 

[Tim-H.]

It's like taking the amazing surround mix of this film and replacing it with someone going "glub, glub" in one speaker with the occasional "caw, caw" (or whatever seagulls do) in the other. But a lot of people just don't think of it that way...

 

[Nick Senger]

Does anyone know anything about the bonus disc that Best Buy is offering with purchase of Master and Commander? Their ad says it has a 20 minute behind-the-scenes documentary, but I don't want to drive all the way out there and pay a higher price just for a piece of studio fluff, or for re-edited footage from the 2-disc set.

 

[Allan^L]

I'm guessing it's re-edited footage from the 70 minute doc on disc 2. It's a great bonus if you're buying the single disc version which has no movie-related special features but if you're getting the SE, I wouldn't bother.

M&C will be my first full-priced blind buy movie. I've bought others but they were previously viewed. I wanted to see it in theatres but didn't get to for some reason. The way-cool packaging and special features made me get it. I hope the movie's good!

 

[Tim-H.]

Allan^L: I'd say you made a fortuitous blind buy. Easily one of the best movies from last year. Eclipsed by bigger (LoTR) and smaller (Lost in Tranlsation) films at awards time, I haven't met a guy yet (and most women, but it's kind of a guy movie) who didn't enjoy it.

 

[ZacharyTait]

Unfortunately, I can't say the same. Three of my friends watched it on DVD last week and all three of them disliked it. One of the friends works at Blockbuster, so that's how they saw it. It was 2 guys and 1 girl. She said " It was boring, pointless, and stupid."

I seriously wonder what my friends smoke before they watch these movies. They didn't like Kill Bill either.

 

[Paul_Scott]

with Share The Love, the price drops to $23 and change.

this is a blind buy for me, but $23 seems workable, and i should be able to recoup a good chunk of that if the film doesn't tickle my fancy.

it seems like, if i bought just the single disc version at a B&M tomorrow, i would pay almost $18 by the time they dinged me for tax, whereas for $5 more you get a much more impressive package.
hard to 'go cheap' in this situation.

 

[CraigF]

I can easily see how somebody would say the movie was "pointless". I thought the editing and resulting "storyline" was just terrible. I knew from the very beginning screen ("1805") that the story wasn't following the book...nothing new. As others have said, it's a mishmash of several stories. The very important character relationships weren't even slightly developed. It just seemed like a conglomeration of unrelated events. A bunch of impressive-looking and sounding vignettes. But since I had read the books, I loved it, just like I like all ship stories. I think this is the poorest movie adaptation of a story since "Dune", another where if you hadn't read the book it was nice-looking but meaningless and plotless. They didn't even mention the significance of what a "prize" is, a term the average person would hardly appreciate, and if they knew it then they could at least understand the perseverance factor in the voyage. This should have been a *4 hour* movie.

 

[Tim-H.]

Well, I guess I've just met some guys who didn't like it!

I haven't read any of the O'Brian books, but sold boatloads (sorry) of them when I worked in a bookstore. Yet I felt the relationship between Aubrey & Maturin (and their respective ideals) was the most important aspect of the film, which was explored through the various events.

CraigF: I'm gonna start thinking of some really stinky book-to-film adaptations. M&C can't be be as bad as...
The Beach? Perfect Storm? (a GREAT read) Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein? In the Cut ? (alright, now I'm stretchin')

 

[CraigF]

Tim: you mean you actually figured out the strong relationship between the two main protagonists from just the film? I don't think I would have if I hadn't known. Yes, there were a couple of scenes showing how the two strong-willed (idealist? in their own way) different characters related, but they were seemingly just thrown in there haphazardly/disconnected.

[I just mentioned "Dune" because watching the movie I wouldn't have had a clue, and Paul Atreides came off as a totally miserable bastard...whereas, the *reasons* why he did what he did had meaning and were important...most people would root for the guy in the books, but in the movie you ended up just not caring. Anyway, I like this movie too.]

It seems character relationships that are more subtle don't come off at all well if you want to make an "action" movie.

 

[Tim-H.]

Well, from my point of view (not having read the books) I felt the relationship was nicely done. But from your point of view (having read O'Brian) I can imagine the film might be lacking--as most adaptations, however well done, often are compared to a book.
(I still love you, Tom Bombadil!)