For today’s reviews, I thought I would go with two films on the opposite ends of the spectrum, a depressing real life story and a fun family film featuring live action animation.

 

CHANGELING

 

THE MOVIE-            2.5 stars out of 5

 

Man, is this a depressing film. It stars Angelina Jolie in her Oscar nominated role as Christine Collins, a mother living in Los Angelos in the late 1920’s whose 9 year old son goes missing. After reporting his disappearance to the police, she finally gets good news after 6 months that her son has been found in the mid-west. There is only one problem however, and that is that the police returned a boy to her that was not her son. When she complained to the police that it was not her son, they refused to believe her. When she went to the press with her concerns, the police had her involuntarily committed to a mental ward. The film is directed by Clint Eastwood and is based on a real story, with the film written out of the report prepared by the city commission that was appointed to look into the conduct of the police during the investigation into the boy’s disappearance along with the stenographic record of the testimony before that committee, including that of Mrs. Collins. There is no question that Ms. Jolie turns in a wonderful performance as Christine Collins. However, I felt that the film just dragged and really lacked much of a spark to draw you into the film. Perhaps it was just the nature of the subject matter. If you want to check out this film, I would suggest that you do so on the basis of a rental as I doubt that you will want to watch the film more than once.

 

THE VIDEO-            4.25 stars out of 5

 

Changeling is encoded with AVC and is presented in its original aspect ratio of  2:40:1. If you were looking for a bright and colorful film, this is not the title for you. The film features a very drab and dark color palette. While black levels are deep and solid, the level of detail present in the image is rather mediocre robbing the film of the level of clarity and three dimensionality that one would expect with this level of black level reproduction. The film features many drab and darker colors such as browns and grays throughout most of the film . However, even brighter colors such as green look rather dark and drab. I can only assume that this was intentional in keeping with the mood and subject matter of the film as well as the fact that the film takes place during the late 1920’s and mid 1930’s. All of this adds up to an drab and dark looking image without much in the way of depth and pop which I found to be disappointing overall.

 

THE AUDIO-            4.50 stars out of 5

 

The lossless audio track on Changeling is encoded with DTS HD Master Audio and sounds fantastic. As one would expect from this type of film, the sound mix is not an aggressive one, with most of the sound emanating from the front three channels. There is sporadic but very effective use of the surrounds to provide room ambiance and sound effects. What really impressed me about the sound here was its overall fidelity which I find to be a real strength in most of the DTS HD Master Audio tracks I have heard. The overall sound here is rich and smooth with rock solid bass and tremendous transparency and imaging. Dialogue is beautifully recorded as well providing a real sense of real voices in real space right in your room. While this is not the type of bombastic sound design that you will think of as reference for the purpose of showing off your sound system, this track does have the type of fidelity that will surely please the audiophiles out there and is another strong effort from the folks at Universal.

 

EXTRAS

 

Surprisingly, there are just a few extras included with this release. Those extras include the featurette Partners in Crime: Clint Eastwood and Angelina Jolie and Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins. The disc is BD-Live enabled and does feature U Control which enables you to access and view the extras while still being able to watch the film.

 

IN CONCLUSION

 

Changeling is the type of film that you may only want to watch once. Just don’t watch it on a cold gloomy and rainy day. Rated as a rental only.

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BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA

 

THE MOVIE-                3 stars out of 5

 

When I saw the trailer for this film in the theater several months ago, I thought wow, that looks dreadful. While some trailers can make a bad film look appealing, the trailer here had the opposite effect, making a charming funny film look dreadful. Yes, I will say it, I liked Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The film finds a diamond clad, pink booty wearing chihuahua named Chloe lost on a Mexican vacation where she is kidnapped by a dog fighting group. She is helped to escape by the other dogs who helpt to try to return her to Beverly Hills to be reunited with her pompous owner, a rich and shallow owner of a cosmetic company played by Jamie Lee Curtis. However, the kidnappers quickly discover who the dog’s owner is and want to capture her again to hold her for ransom, and send their prized pooch, a Doberman named Diablo to track her down and capture her. I know, I know, it sounds lame. Perhaps it is the bad economic times but the film was sure god for some real laughs. Perhaps during these times, a feel good movie isn’t a bad idea. The film features live animation and the voices of Drew Barrymore as Chloe as well as George Lopez, Andy Garcia, Cheech Martin and Paul Rodriguez. This is a film that the entire family will enjoy. Recommended.

 

THE VIDEO-                4.50 stars out of 5

 

Beverly Hills Chihuahua is encoded with AVC and is presented in its original aspect ratio. In keeping with the overall mood of the film, this transfer boasts bright and bold primary as well as secondary colors. To be sure, the colors are a bit oversaturated, but they really do leap off the screen and are consistent with the trailer I saw in the theater. Black level is deep and solid presenting an image of excellent depth and dimensionality. Image detail is above average as well, contributing to a clear and well defined overall image that will surely please fans of the film. Overall, I was more than pleased by the look of the film on Blu-ray and it is another solid effort from the folks at Disney.

 

THE AUDIO-            4.5 stars out of 5

 

Rather than use a lossless codec such as Dolby True HD or DTS HD Master Audio, the lossless audio track on Beverly Hills Chihuahua is presented with an Uncompressed 48 kHz/24 bit PCM track. As was the case with Changeling reviewed above, this track boasts excellent fidelity despite its rather simple and front heavy sound design. Again, this is not a bombastic sounding film but does boast a smooth, rich and open sound with excellent bass response, well recorded dialogue and excellent transparency and imaging. In my book, that warrants a top tier score.

 

EXTRAS

 

As one would expect from the release of such a popular film, this release contains many extras including an all new animated short The Legend of the Chihuahua, blooper scenes, deleted scenes and an audio commentary. Exclusive the this Blu-Ray release are several additional extras including Pet Pals: The Voices Behind the Dogs, Hitting the Bark: On Set with the Dogs of Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Even More Canine Capers in Additional Deleted Scenes, all in HD. The release is also BD-Live enabled.

 

IN CONCLUSION

 

Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a fun and engaging film that the whole family can enjoy. The fact that it boasts very good audio and video is an added bonus. Recommended.