March 2nd 2010 marked the arrival of the big budget movies on Blu-ray this year, with the Sony Pictures release 2012.

This epic disaster movie ponders if mankind even has a future after cataclysmic events from an ancient Mayan prophecy.

The sun has gone into a new strange phase and neutrinos are heating the Earth’s core at an alarming rate.

Lakes are drying up and Los Angeles is suffering small tremors on a regular basis.

Meanwhile author turned limo driver Jackson Curtis is taking his family out on a camping trip, only to discover ‘the truth’ from a rambling crackpot radio announcer.

Can Jackson and his family escape the destruction as Los Angeles slides into the Pacifc?

Will they uncover the obligatory international government conspiracy to protect the wealthy and elite from the end of times?

Certainly the film makers have gone to great lengths here to present an exciting movie, but in reality it runs too long and the destruction of the planet’s icons becomes monotonous after a while.

They could easily have slashed millions off the special effects budget by making a tighter two hour movie.

In addition, while sometimes it is fun to turn the brain off and munch on the popcorn, this movie took the suspension of belief thing to a whole new level - so much so that it just fails to be even close to credible.

On the other hand, this film features top notch practical and computer generated special effects which are on a scale never previously seen.

The cast is also a pretty decent ensemble,  including John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson and Chjwetel Ejiofor.

2012 was directed by Roland Emmerich, famous for epic special effects movies including The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, as well as factually loose period pieces like The Patriot.

Emmerich promises that this will be his last disaster flick.

The movie was given a a bit of a hard hard time by critics - it earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 39% and IMDb score of 6.1/10, which I think is a pretty fair assessment.

2012 had a strong run at the cinema, reaching $166.1M at the US box office.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 22 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1.

The movie looks great, as you would expect from such a high budget production.

For full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc, check out the details page for 2012.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 41.7 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

Supplements for this title include Bonus View Picture in Picture streams and BD Live Network features.

The BD exclusive movieIQ feature allows movie details to be researched as the movie plays.

The Picture-in-Picture option features the director’s Vision, including pre-visualization, storyboards and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as interviews with cast and crew.

The first disc also features a commentary with writer/director Roland Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser.

Additionally an alternate ending that is a little more sugar coated than the theatrical version is present on the first disc.

Most of the special features are on the second dedicated supplemental disc.

There is a small selection of deleted scenes where good choices to be removed from the movie.

BD Java is put to good use in the Interactive Mayan Calendar where you can enter a date to reveal your horoscope and find your Mayan personality profile based on your birth date.

There is also a short featurette that covers the Mysteries of the Mayan Calendar and the extensive cycles that it includes.

The Designing the End of the World featurette is the main making of documentary, and it largely covers the computer generated and practical special effects that were combined to form the images on the screen.

In a lot of ways a film buff will likely find this segment is more interesting than the movie itself, especially with the scale of the practical effects used to give the film a feeling of authenticity.

The history and nature of the director is covered in the Roland Emmerich: Master of the Modern Epic featurette

The Science Behind the Destruction featurette looks into potentially plausible real causes for the disasters presented in the film.

The actors in the film take center stage in the The End of the World: The Actor’s Perspective featurette, which covers the casting and the challenges of acting in this kind of movie.

The Countdown to the Future featurette investigates the potential for the the end of the real world in 2012 due to increasingly unusual solar activity and the phases of Mayan calendar.

The Time For Miracles music video by Adam Lambert of American Idol fame is included along with a ‘making of’ feature for the video.

The Digital Copy for PSP is actually included on the supplemental Blu-ray Disc and is transferable to the PSP via a PlayStation3.

A separate DVD disc contains the Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media.

Whether you consider it an amazing disaster epic or an amazingly epic disaster, the two disc edition of 2012 is a great Blu-ray Disc release from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Even if the movie isn’t all that appealing to you, this disc is an excellent choice for demonstrating the capabilities of Blu-ray Disc and your home theater system.

The retail price is $39.95, or order it right now at Amazon for $24.99, saving 37%!

If you are not interested in all of the special features and the digital copy, you can find the 2012 Single Disc Version for a little less at $23.99, though I think the extras are worth the extra $1 myself.

Extras:

• movieIQ
• Picture-in-Picture: Roland’s Vision (BD Exclusive) – Includes pre-visualization, storyboards and behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with filmmakers, cast and crew
• Commentary with Writer/Director Roland Emmerich & Co-Writer Harald Kloser
• Alternate Ending
• Interactive Mayan Calendar (BD Exclusive) – Enter a date to reveal your horoscope and personality profile
• Mysteries of the Mayan Calendar featurette
• Designing the End of the World featurette
• Roland Emmerich: Master of the Modern Epic featurette
• Science Behind the Destruction featurette
• The End of the World: The Actor’s Perspective featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Countdown to the Future
• “Time For Miracles” Music Video by Adam Lambert
• Making the Music Video “Time For Miracles” with Adam Lambert
• Digital Copy for PSP – included on the Blu-ray and transferable via the PlayStation®3
• Digital Copy for iTunes and PC

Synopsis:

From Roland Emmerich, director of The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, comes the ultimate action-adventure film, exploding with groundbreaking special effects. As the world faces a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions, cities collapse and continents crumble. 2012 brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors. Starring John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover.

Right now you can save an extra $30 on the refurbished Sony BDPS360 Blu-ray Disc Player, now only $89.99 at Sony Style!

It is not often that you see a Sony player discounted to under $100.

This promotion ends March 13th.

The Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 7th of March 2010 features the first Paramount title in a little while - Up in the Air is a great little film and well worth a look.

Other day and date titles for today from Sony and Disney both include DVD and Digital Copy, though neither Planet 51 nor Old Dogs were well received by the critics.

On the more dramatic side, Lionsgate has Precious and The Stoning of Soraya M., while Sony goes with a family movie Hachi: A Dog’s Tale and ultraviolence with The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.

An intriguing new release this month is the animated Blu-ray title Ponyo, released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on March 2nd, 2010.

While we have seen Japanese animation released through Bandai and Funimation, I think this is one of the few cases where we have a major studio behind the genre.

In fact it would not surprise me to see Disney hoping to add another ‘Pixar’ to their animation stable.

Ponyo was produced by by Studio Ghibli in Japan, though it has also had an English audio overhaul for the US release of the movie.

The movie is loosely based on the Hans Christian Anderson story The Little Mermaid, and features the story of a goldfish with a human face who escapes her father and befriends a young human boy Sozuke.

Sozuke names her Ponyo and the two become close friends.

While Ponyo’s father seeks to return her to the sea, Ponyo has other ideas and ultimately wants to become a human child.

Through Ponyo’s defiance and magic potions, huge storms envelop the region and disaster looms, with Ponyo and Sozuke holding the key to restoring balance to the oceans.

The film is a little ‘trippy’ and off the wall, though is great little story and is suitable for family members of all ages.

The animation style is colourful and bright, and overall I found it to be a fun film to watch.

Disney obviously put a lot of effort into the voice casting for the English soundtrack, with Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas voicing the main characters.

Adult voices were provided by Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin and Betty White.

Ponyo was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, who won the 2002 Best Animated Film Oscar for his movie Spirited Away.

The movie was very well received by critics - it earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% and IMDb score of 7.9/10.

Ponyo also had a small run in US cinema, reaching $15.1M at the domestic box office.

The video on the disc is an AVC 1080p encode at 22.5 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

The Blu-ray presentation of the animation looks both colourful and sharp.

Find full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc at the details page for Ponyo.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 16 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

You can also watch with the original Japanese soundtrack with subtitles in English.

The disc is a dual layer BD50, with 44.3 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

This title comes with a good selection of supplements, including Bonus View Picture in Picture video.

The World Of Ghibli is an extensive feature that has two main sections.

One is a collection of behind the scenes featurettes, interviews and trailers, while the other is a more interactive Java based program with sections for a number of the Ghibli movies.

One of the interactive sequences asks you a series of questions and identifies which Ponyo character you are most like and tells you why.

Apparently I am most like Ponyo - must be the round belly!

It is nice to see the BD Java being put to good use on this release.

The Meet Ponyo featurette presents an introduction by the US producers through interviews and segments from the film.

The original storyboard presentation of the movie can be seen in an optional picture in picture window as the movie runs.

The package also includes a DVD of the movie for legacy DVD players.

It is great to see Japanese animation getting a wider release and no doubt if it is successful in the US market, we will see more Studio Ghibli titles from Disney.

Ponyo is also is another strong Blu-ray release from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

The retail price is $39.99, and it is available at Amazon for $24.99, saving 38%!

While Ponyo was the only Blu-ray Disc released from Ghibli, new special edition DVDs for Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro were released on the same day.

Extras:

• The World Of Ghibli: Visit Ponyo In This Extraordinary Interactive Experience!
• Meet Ponyo: Introduction By The Producers
• Storyboard Presentation Of The Movie

Synopsis:

Welcome to a world where anything is possible! Academy Award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki (2002, Best Animated Feature, Spirited Away) and legendary filmmaker John Lasseter together with Disney bring to life a heartwarming and imaginative telling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Little Mermaid. A young boy named Sosuke rescues a goldfish named Ponyo, and they embark on a fantastic journey of friendship and discovery before Ponyo’s father, a powerful sorcerer, forces her to return to her home in the sea. In her quest to become human and reunite with Sosuke, Ponyo stumbles upon and releases her father’s magical Water of Life and triggers a gigantic storm. Now balance must be restored to the world they all cherish. Ponyo will delight your family with its magnificent animation and timeless story.

Best Buy has a number of new Blu-ray promotions this week, including Half Off, Oscar titles and movies from $10.99.

Titles at $10.99 include Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Dark City, Blow, The Perfect Storm, The Lost Boys and Final Destination.

As always you can order online and have them shipped or pick them up in store.

The Blu-ray market share was back up to 13% on a revenue of $20.96M for the week ending February 28th, according to Home Media Magazine.

While it was good to see double figure market share and revenue over $20M, it was a bit of a strange week, perhaps with significant sales promotions for certain titles.

Law Abiding Citizen from Anchor Bay was again in 1st place, ahead of Pixar’s Up in 2nd place - and hint that promotional pricing was in play.

The best selling new title was Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths from Warner in 3rd place, ahead of Star Trek from Paramount and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian from Fox in 4th and 5th.

Other new titles didn’t fare quite as well, with The Informant! from Warner in 10th place,  Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant from Universal in 12th place, and The Box from Warner down in 15th position.

Looking at per title market share, we see almost the exact opposite of last week.

Top selling Law Abiding Citizen had a strong 41% Blu-ray Disc market share while Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths also performed well with 29% share.

New Warner titles The Informant! and The Box sold19% and 18% on Blu-ray Disc respectively, while Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant had 21% share.

Strong signs of promotional pricing were evident with a number of titles outselling their DVD counterparts.

Up had 55% market share, Star Trek an amazing 77% market share, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian had 68% and Inglourious Basterds from Universal squeaked in with 52% Blu-ray share.

I was a little surprised that Everybody’s Fine from Disney/Miramax didn’t get a Blu-ray Disc release, so no market share for that title at all.

Amazon has recently reduced the pricing on a number of television season box sets.

Perhaps the best deal is a saving of 69% on the Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 box, now only $39.99.

Additionally you can save 64% on Fringe: The Complete First Season and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season, both only $24.99.

Further savings on Warner titles include Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season for $26.49,  Nip/Tuck: The Complete Fourth Season for $26.99 and Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season, Smallville: The Complete Seventh Season or Supernatural - The Complete Third Season for $27.99.

A great chance to add some television titles to the collection!

The Time Traveler’s Wife, released on Blu-ray by New Line Home Video on February 9th, is an interesting fusion of a love story with science fiction.

The film follows Clare and her unusual relationship with the time traveling Henry, who mysteriously travels through time and space when he becomes emotional.

When Henry travels he finds himself naked in his new location, and has to find the nearest shelter and clothing, never sure when he will return to the present time.

Henry has no control over when he travels, where and when he ends up, nor how long he stays, and he travels into both the past and future.

The film mostly follows Henry’s time line, with occasional flash backs to help establish Clare’s time line also.

When Henry first meets Clare, he does not know who she is, though she has already fallen in love with him through his many visits into the past.

The truth of the time line in the movie is well maintained, and the characters struggle with the facts that they know from the future and the possibility of changing their destiny.

Personally I found the concept intriguing and the movie to be quite enjoyable, though it fits into the thought provoking side rather than the action side of science fiction.

The cast features Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in the lead roles, as well as Ron Livingston, Arliss Howard, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jane McLean and Brooklyn Proulx.

The Time Traveler’s Wife was directed by Robert Schwentke, the man behind the thriller Flightplan.

The movie had a mixed reception from the critics wiith a Rotten Tomatoes score of 38%, and a much better IMDb score of 7.2/10.

I would tend to side towards the IMDb score for this one.

The Time Traveler’s Wife did fairly well in the cinema though, reaching $63.4M at the US box office.

The video on the disc is a VC-1 1080p encode at 17 Mbps, and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

You will find full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc at the details page for The Time Traveler’s Wife.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a single layer BD25, with 23.6 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

Along with a couple of featurettes, his release includes a Digital Copy for both Windows Media and iTunes.

An Uncoventional Love Story features Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams and their views on the characters they portray.

The other featurette - The Time Traveler’s Wife: Love Beyond Words - is a 20 minute behind the scenes ‘making of’ documentary.

I quite enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife myself, though I can see that this style of movie is not for everyone.

The Blu-ray release from New Line Home Entertainment is another fairly light weight release from parent company Warner, though the movie itself gets a fairly decent presentation.

The retail price is $35.99, or order it right now at Amazon for $23.99, saving 33%!

Extras:

• An Uncoventional Love Story
• The Time Traveler’s Wife: Love Beyond Words

Synopsis:

Lose yourself in timeless love with this gloriously romantic story of the journey of two hearts. Artist Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams of The Notebook) shares a deep emotional bond with Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana of The Other Boleyn Girl), a handsome librarian who travels involuntarily through time. Knowing they can be separated without warning, Clare and Henry treasure the moments they have together, imbuing them with the yearning and passion of two people imprisoned by time - and set free by love. Based on the #1 bestseller, The Time Traveler’s Wife weaves together destiny and devotion, past and future to turn an extraordinary love into an extraordinary love story.

The second Blu-ray Disc release from Magnolia Home Entertainment on February 9th was the romantic comedy Serious Moonlight.

Essentially the plot revolves around Louise and Ian, who have been married for thirteen years, though the magic has worn off for Ian.

While he is setting up for a romantic interlude with his mistress, Louise arrives unexpected and discovers his plan to run off to Paris and leave her.

Unwilling to accept her situation, Louise conks him over the head and while he is unconscious she duct tapes him to a chair, and later a toilet, vowing to keep him captive until their love is rekindled.

To complicate this seemingly impossible process, the house is taken over by burglars and the couple ends captive in their bathroom.

While the premise of the movie seemed interesting, the film has a number of weaknesses.

The film is surprisingly violent and mean spirited at times for a comedy, and often the dialogue and actions do not ring true.

The characters are pretty shallow, especially that of the mistress.

The movie was the last screenplay written by Adrienne Shelly before her untimely death, the writer and director of the movie Waitress, and was produced by her friends as a tribute to her.

In reality I think that the screenplay was not really completed, and it seems that the film makers were either unable or unwilling to revise it.

The film attracted a pretty decent cast, including Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton in the lead roles, as well as Kristen Bell and Justin Long.

Serious Moonlight was directed by Cheryl Hines, who also appeared in Waitress.

The movie was panned by critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 28% and an IMDb score of 5.6/10.

Serious Moonlight also had a small run in the cinema, earning $25.3k at the US box office.

The video on the disc is a VC-1 1080p encode at 26 Mbps, and is presented at 1.78:1 aspect ratio, filling the HDTV screen.

The image quality is surprisingly poor, perhaps due to it being a low budget production.

Check out the details page for Serious Moonlight to see full resolution PNG screen captures taken directly from the disc.

The main audio is lossless DTS-HD Master Audio with 5.1 channels - 24 bits resolution at 48 kHz.

The disc is a single layer BD25, with 23.2 GB used and is coded for All Regions.

The supplements are a little limited, but include an audio commentary with Cheryl Hines (director), Andy Ostroy (producer) and Michael Roiff (producer).

A look behind the scenes  is offered with the Making of Serious Moonlight featurette and the HDNet: A Look at Serious Moonlight.

All in all I think Serious Moonlight was an honorable attempt to honor the writer, though the result is sadly a film without much merit.

The Blu-ray release is from Magnolia Home Entertainment is probably about as much as one could realistically hope for.

The retail price is $29.98, and it is available at Amazon for $23.49, saving 22%!

Extras:

• Commentary with Cheryl Hines (director), Andy Ostroy (producer) and Michael Roiff (producer).
• The Making of Serious Moonlight (1.33:1; 480i/60; 0:12.21)
• HDNet: a look at Serious Moonlight (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 0:04.40)

Synopsis:

Things aren’t going exactly as planned for high-powered, Manhattan lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan). Her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy Hutton), announces to her that he’s leaving her for a younger woman (Kristen Bell). Taking things into her own hands, Louise holds Ian captive until he agrees to work on their marriage. The unexpected arrival of a gardener turned opportunistic thief (Justin Long) and Ian’s impatient mistress serve only to complicate the spiraling situation further.

The Blu-ray Cover Art Gallery for the week of the 28th of February 2010 reveals a few bigger releases this week.

Sony steps it up with no less than two versions of the Roland Emmerich distater movie 2012 and the 2012 2 Disc Edition that also includes a Digital Copy.

Warner has Spike Jonze’s much anticipated adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, again with Digital Copy.

Warner is also releasing a Digibook version of the original Clash of the Titans while Fox has the latest Jared Hess film Gentlemen Broncos, that features Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords.

Click on any cover to see the details for the title.