 ""The lesser of two weevils."" | 2008-09-24 |
| - Reviewed By jeff_minde |
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD stars Russell Crowe as Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey, master and commander of the 'HMS Surprise,' on war patrol during the first worldwide war of the Napoleonic era (1805). Crowe is perfectly cast as Aubrey, an intelligent, erudite captain who can both inspire and lead his men with fairness and firmness, only occasionally resorting to the knout.
MASTER AND COMMANDER is gorgeously done, the ships are authentically recreated, and the atmosphere of the film never thins. For anyone familiar with the history of seafaring conditions in those days, the film is somewhat sparse in showing us the true underside of life before the mast on board a late eighteenth century/early 19th century British man-o'-war: A stinking, dirty, dark, dank, impossibly cramped and crowded space most often painted red to hide the bloodstains from work wounds, war wounds, and fights. Compared to the reality, the 'Surprise' might as well be the 'Mauretania,' but beyond this lapse, the film is an honest portrayal. Sailors, be they professional, military, or recreational, will love it.
Some reviewers have derided this film as being "boring." It is not. However, a drawback of making accurate films about the Age of Sail is that a jack tar's life in those years was defined by backbreaking, repetitive daily labor altogether adding up to long stretches of ennui, punctuated by short, incredibly violent and bloody exchanges with the enemy. To be an honest portrayal, a film cannot find its way around this central fact.
Captain Aubrey and his crew and ship, including his friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin, a surgeon and naturalist, are attacked by the French battle ship 'Acheron.' After being trounced, Captain Aubrey becomes as obsessed as Melville's Ahab with hunting down the adversary, and takes his vessel around Cape Horn, into the Southern Ocean, the Pacific, and to the Galapagos Islands to meet battle.
While at the Galapagos, Maturin discovers dozens of new species of life and formulates a theory regarding the origin of these species, but the demands of the service call the 'Surprise' away before he can collect specimens or coalesce his ideas, leaving it to Darwin to do so not many years later.
As the film closes, the 'Surprise' continues on her war patrol, leaving the door open for a sequel.
RECOMMENDED |
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 "Movie: 4/5 Picture Quality: 3.75/5 Sound Quality: 5/5 Extras: 2/5" | 2008-09-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: AHABFECTNE15I |
Version: U.S.A / Region-A
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50
Running time: 2:18:20
Movie size: 37,07 GB
Disc size: 44,16 GB
Average video bit rate: 27.86 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio English 4349 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 1536kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 448 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 448 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz
Subtitles: English SDH / Chinese / Spanish / Korean
#Deleted Scenes (SD, 24 min.)
#Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3 min.)
#Historical and Geographical Trivia Track
#Pop-Up Map
#Search Content
#Personal Scene Selections
#D-Box Motion Code
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 "Commanding Performance" | 2008-08-26 |
| - Reviewed By safety-queen |
Peter Weir is amazing. Utterly and absolutely amazing.
In the first 2 or 3 minutes of the movie, the only sound is the ocean. No music. No dialogue. Nothing loud. Simply the gentle susurration of the water. And yet, such an amazing amount of information is conveyed in that short period of time.
The opening volley - in the quite literal sense - was shocking. Completely shocking in its violence, its comprehensiveness. Even watching it tonight, for the n-th time, I am jolted from the mild, placid tension to a breathtaking, gut-clenching cringe from the screen. Yes, a feat of CGI; but the actual choice of imagery is the wonder.
People can drone on about the `accuracy' or `authenticity' of the visual presentation (sure, I can be one of them). But the more amazing feat is the astonishing amount of the story which is told without words. Either in a simple visual manner, such as the initial minutes of the film, or as a miscellaneous background, a subliminal presentation, such as the dinner with the captain in the middle of the film where he announces the Galapagos Is. as their destination. It isn't the dialogue here, but the simple manner in which the dinner occurs, with singing and drinking and drinking with everyone having a crewman behind his chair, with the absolute absence of any women (there are 2 on screen for about 30 seconds while they're picking up stuff in Brazil).
It is the manner in which Weir frames the dialogue, with images and motion, and music which make the film so powerful.
I've read all of O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin novels, and several of his others. (Did you know he wrote Bedknobs and Broomsticks??) When I realized "Far Side of the World" was being made into a movie, I swore in delight. I then swore in frustration. If I decide to see an adapted screenplay, I avoid reading the book, if possible. It lets me take the film on its own merits. I was only on no. 8; Far Side of the World is no. 10. I had to put off reading the rest of the novels for a year and a half. Argh!
Quite a bit is missing; several bits are from other novels in the series. E.g., Ensign Hollum jumps ship with the gunner's wife, whom he's gotten pregnant (she's not in the book). Dr. Maturin does name some huge tortoise after Capt. Aubrey, but it's a few novels earlier when they're somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Bits & pieces from other parts are in the movie, obviously taking the entire opus as the field from which to pick the best phrases or images.
With the whole concept of framing the story, the entire story is on ship, with a brief respite on the Galapagos Is. There is no world outside of the crew. And yet, with such a small, enclosed space, it is presented as just that, a world within itself. This will assuredly remain one of my favorite movies of all time. The judgment of which is whether or not I'll buy the next-generation of video medium (blue-ray HD DVD whatever).
The extra disc of "extras" is amusing and informative. It's quite long, giving you an opportunity to spend another couple of hours watching it. It's a pleasant addition to understanding how the movie was made, especially with Wier's discussion.
Elizabeth's rating:
Definitely go see it on the big screen at full price (if you ever get a chance) |
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| "VERY GOOD!" | 2008-08-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A27PHICY37TL10 |
BASED ON A NOVEL (EXCELLENT) THIS IS A GREAT ACTION/ADVENTURE MOVIE.
EVEN BETTER IF YOU LIKE SAILING OR HISTORY. |
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| "A strong Blu Ray transfer for "Master and Commander" a highlight of the set which is a bit light on extras" | 2008-07-12 |
| - Reviewed By wtdk |
Peter Weir's "Master and Commander" manages to compress two marvelous novels into one marvelous film. Captain "Jack" Arbry (Russell Crowe in a marvelous performance) and the crew of the Surprise pursue a French warship in Atlantic waters. Out gunned and out classed by a heavier, faster ship, Arbry is determined to take down the French raider before it takes down another of Her Majesty's Ships. This pursuit will cost his crew, his ship but must be done to keep the waters safe for other vessels.
Sharp direction by Weir, a masterfully adapted script by Weir and John Colee makes this harrowing sea adventure a worthwhile trip. Weir adds a powerful cinematic flair with the sharp camera work of Russell Boyd. Unlike a lot of previous adventures at sea, the fluid camera work adds to the sense of menace and danger that Arbry and his crew feel.
The extras are similar to the original single disc DVD which is a bit disappointing especially considering how much Fox is charging for their Blu Ray discs (particularly compared to Warner). All the extras are in high definition which is good news. We get deleted scenes, a historical and geographical trivia track, a pop up map showing you where the S.S. Surprise is at any given moment, the theatrical trailer and the ability to search and save your favorite scenes.
There's no commentary track nor are there any featurettes on the making of the film. Considering this IS a Blu-Ray disc, I'd expect the featurettes from the deluxe DVD edition of the film if nothing else but, sadly, we don't get it. I suspect we'll see a Blu-Ray double dip shortly.
I can recommend the movie on Blu-ray simply because it has a superb looking transfer with nice detail and without the over use of digital clean up (a problem for "Patton" which is one of the worst looking Blu-Ray's I've seen--not because of the image itself but because of the overuse of digital tools to clean up the film creating waxy looking skin textures, loss of general detail and adding an unnecessary digital "look" to the film to eliminate film grain). |
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| "A true "Classic"" | 2008-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By roidefromage |
| Why there has been no sequel to this film baffles me. It is an almost perfect depiction of life at sea during the Napoleanic Wars, and better yet, a multifaceted study of the human condition. The acting and action is superb, the plot unerring, and if you love GREAT surround sound, it is as good as it gets. I just wish they would continue the series. If they can make 3 Spiderman films, why won't they continue this far more interesting vein? |
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| "Very much a "man's" film" | 2008-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By michelle17 |
I've never watched Master And Commander before, there's always been something in the way. The length, it wasn't "appropriate" to watch it at that particular moment in time, and the fact that I couldn't (notice the past tense) stand Russell Crowe. But when you're thinking that you'll never agree on a movie to watch, out comes the one that you've never had a chance to watch yet.
The thing about M&C is that it's very much a movie aimed at men. There is only one scene which features women, and it's very brief. The rest of the movie features men - manly men, wimpy men, rugged men, MEN. Now, while us ladies like our men, it can be a little bit overpowering especially in a 138 minute long movie. And when some of the cast look like they should be appearing in Oliver. But when you consider that the rumoured love interest for Russell's character was supposed to be Keira Knightley - I'll stick with all the men thanks.
But back to the movie. For a 138 minute long movie, I'm surprised that it actually went by so fast. Even the setting didn't get boring - 90% of it is set on a ship after all. And the other setting was Galapagos Islands (I still don't know how to pronouce it).
There's a pretty basic plot, but at the same time it's pretty involving, and at one point I was clenching my fists, desperate for the right ship to win. My only quibble was the cast - there was so many of them, I eventually lost track of who was who, and didn't even recognise Paul Bettany, despite having just watched him in Wimbledon. (I thought it was Jason Isaacs - duh.) The cast was very impressive, and all of them played their roles very well - even though I still have no idea who was who. A few of the cast could have easily walked off the ship and straight into a production of Oliver, which made me smile quite a lot.
Russell was surprisingly good as well. I tend to stay away from his movies, as I just don't see the appeal. But he's not a terrible actor, and his portrayal of Capt. Jack Aubrey was excellent.
There are a few sad moments in the movie, and I started second guessing the ending - but thankfully I was wrong. In my opinion, the ending did fall a bit flat, and it wasn't what I expected, but it was better than what I was expecting. If that makes any sense what so ever.
Overall, M&C was an excellent afternoon movie, although I did fall asleep straight afterwards - but fortunately not during! - but just make sure you set aside plenty of time for it, and possibly don't watch when you're in a man-hating mood. |
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| "Master and Commander" | 2008-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: AD783RG44KIMP |
Great film, I also recommend the book, but they did a great job on this movie. If you haven't seen it: see it.
As for the DVD/Sound quality etc. I am suprised at how many reviews are only about this. I honestly did not recognize a huge difference in the quality of the DVD from the VHS. |
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| "JP" | 2008-06-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1QLPYNMXENS47 |
This movie is hands down one of the best of the last decade.
I'm not one to rate movies, but far too many people are too quick to judge this film. I, like many, went into this movie expecting a swashbuckling thriller, only to find a much more thoughtful movie. The pacing is measured, but perfect for the story - one which is more about 19th century sailing and the bonds of friendship than swords and cannons. Much like other movies by Weir, including Gallipoli (I believe this movie to be far superior to that more widely hailed film), it is hard to place this in a single category.
That's not to say there is no action. The movie has quite possibly the most visceral and entertaining ship-to-ship combat scene I have ever scene. This only caps a movie that is incredibly detailed and beautiful to watch. Everything from the wardrobe to the knots is near perfect in representing this period, creating an understanding of the place and times that is truly unique. Add to this the inherent beauty of 19th century sailing, the dramatic landscape of the Galapagos and the incredible cinematography, and you have a truly awe-inspiring movie. Add to this the incredible sound effects and the absolutely perfect score (just go buy the soundtrack, performed by Yo-Yo Ma), and its a complete viewing experience.
Yet all of this would pale be for naught if not for the incredible acting of this movie. Crowe and Bettany give succinct and underplayed performances, making their characters truly live. Similar kudos go to all involved, from the recognizable Billy Boyd to a number of relatively unknown actors who make even the smallest roles perfect (witness the character of the young Mr. Blakely or the grizzled, gregarious sailing master).
Historically accurate (this coming from a trained historian), beautiful to the senses and well acted, this movie had become one of my all-time favorites. Admittedly, having mixed reactions after first viewing because of its untraditional storyline and accurate recreation of shipboard life, I now watch this movie at least once a month. Just buy the darn thing.
**Just a word on the extras: they are good, but they really didn't blow me away. In regards to how the film was made, they are impressive, but there isn't much on the history or even on the author. It's really a shame, since this movie deserved so much more. While I would recommend buying this edition, buy the cheaper one if you are worried about spending the money. |
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| "Don't forget about blu-ray sound!" | 2008-06-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2ILYSAGYJY4HJ |
| Compared to the standard edition DVD Master and Commander looks even sharper. The big difference between two editions is the sound. My player only does the DTS-HD (6 bit) sound instead of the DTS_HD Master Audio (24.5 bit) sound. Still the difference between the standard DTS (1.5 bit) is amazing. You can really feel the difference. If you have a good or better sound system, you'll really notice the difference! |
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