Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Here are my top picks in Blu-ray home entertainment this week.

Frank Sinatra: 5 Film Collection (Warner Home Video, not rated, $69.96) — Appreciate part of the cinematic legacy of one of the world’s greatest crooners in a high-definition collection featuring a quintet of Ol’ Blue Eyes most beloved movies.

The five-disk Blu-ray set offers the musicals “Anchors Aweigh” (1945), “On the Town” (1949), “Guys and Dolls” (1955), “Robin and the Seven Hoods” (1964) and the premier buddy film “Ocean’s 11” (1960). The package contains a 32-page, hardbound photo book of Mr. Sinatra’s film career, and each disk offers a fantastic digital transfer of the films and nostalgic extras. Here’s the line-up:

• “Anchors Aweigh” — Viewers get a newly remastered version of the Academy Award-winning musical comedy about two sailors on leave in Hollywood starred Mr. Sinatra, Gene Kelley and Kathryn Grayson. The film is bursting with song and dance and features the memorable number “The Worry Song” between Mr. Kelly and the animated mouse Jerry (of Tom and Jerry Fame). Extras offer the MGM short “Football Thrills of 1944” and the 1945 Tex Avery cartoon “Jerky Turkey” to warm up the home theater audience to the main event and a much-too-short look at the making of the dance between an animated mouse and Kelly.

• “On the Town” — Another song-and-dance gem (adapted from the Broadway musical) gets a newly remastered digital transfer to shine the talent spotlight on Gene Kelly, Vera Ellen (“White Christmas”), Ann Miller and Sinatra. Three sailors (Kelly, Sinatra and Jules Mushin) on leave in New York City look for romance and adventure while belting out (with help from the ensemble cast) a dozen tunes including the Sinatra classic  “New York, New York.” The colors are gorgeous with this one but extras are a bit light only more pre-show nostalgia including the 1949 MGM short “Mr. Whitney Had a Notion” and the 1949 cartoon “Doggone Tired.”

• “Guys and Dolls” — Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ 2.5-hour epic adaptation of the famed Broadway musical offered a colorful look at gamblers in a 1940s New York City. No disrespect to Sinatra, but Marlin Brando as Sky Masterson is the star of this show as he sings and dances his way into the heart of Sgt. Sarah Brown (ably played by Jean Simmons). The digital transfer especially shines in the musical number set in and around a Havana nightclub. The New York sets and characters also take on a cartoony quality thanks to eye-popping colors. Best extra are 50 minutes worth of featurettes devoted to the history of the production, producer Samuel Goldwyn and adapting the movie from the Broadway play.

• “Ocean’s 11” — Eleven World War II veterans work on the ultimate heist to steal riches from the hottest casinos on the Vegas strip in the definitive Rat Pack film. The over 2-hour-long classic highlights the hippest stars of the day such as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Sinatra. Extras include a commentary track with Frank Sinatra Jr. and a bubbly Angie Dickinson and an interactive map containing video interviews about key casinos in Las Vegas.

• “Robin and the Seven Hoods” — A musical mobster film set in the Chicago in the 1930s reassembles most of the Rat Pack and offers an unusual adaptation to the Robin Hood myth. Bing Crosby joins Dean, Frank and Sammy for the hoofing and singing of some odd songs but the Sinatra classic “My Kind of Town” really shines. Newly remastered for Blu-ray, the stunning colors along with sound highlighting Nelson Riddle’s punctuated orchestration reminded me of the “Batman” live-action television show from the 1960s. Three vintage Warner Bros cartoons tied to Robin Hood for pre-show fodder and a commentary track by Frank Sinatra Jr. round out the fun.

Selma (Paramount Home Entertainment, Rated PG-13, $39.99) — With the racial tensions in Baltimore surfacing from the unexplained death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died a week after getting a spinal injury while in police custody, it’s even more important to remember the past and continue to try and not repeat it.

The release of “Selma” on Blu-ray allows home theater viewers the chance. The 128-minute movie acts as an unsettling as well as sobering history lesson about racial injustice from director Ava DuVernay.

It methodically chronicles some of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

British actor David Oyelowo delivers a potent performance as King, offering insight into the flaws, strengths and sometimes mundane life of a man who preached pacifism and was the unifying leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

His mission comes to light with help of an excellent supporting cast featuring Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Baines Johnson. The scenes of leaders King and Johnson working through the embarrassing politics that lead to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act are riveting.

Despite excellent acting and direction, the digital transfer is a bit perplexing with a desaturated color pallet thrown over the entire film, whether indoors or outdoors. That leads to too many murky and color-draining moments for the home theater experience.

A diverse selection of extras act as both a teaching tool for film and history.

First, a pair of optional commentary tracks feature Mr. Oyelowo, Miss DuVernay, Director of Photography Bradford Young, and Editor Spencer Avarice as they discuss the production. I would have preferred more detail about the actual events from Mr. Oyelowo and Miss DuVernay, but the casual narrative is still informative.

Required viewing for high school students includes actual images from the marches and 6-minutes worth of newsreel footage, a 7-minute featurette on the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and a text-based Selma Discussion Guide.

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