A
Christmas Story Christmas/Dolly
Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas
(both 2022/Warner)/Lifetime
12-Movie Set: A Very Merry Christmas, Volume 5 + 6
(2019 - 2022/Lionsgate)/Love
Actually 4K
(2003/4K Blu-ray w/Blu-ray*)/The
Office: Complete Christmas Collection
(2005 - 2012/*both Universal/all DVDs)
4K
Picture: B Picture: C/C/C+/B-/C+ Sound: C+ (Love:
B & B-) Extras: D/C/D/C+/C+ Films: C/C/C/C+/C+
Now
for a slew of Christmas releases...
Clay
Kaytis' A
Christmas Story Christmas
(2022) is the 39-years-later direct sequel to the late, great Bob
Clark's A
Christmas Story
(1983) and you can read about the new 4K edition of that classic and
the first sequel to the film at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16212/A+Christmas+Story+4K+(1983)/Elf+4
Peter
Billingsley is back as an adult, middle-aged Ralphie and this has
some good moments in a project that seemed to be as good as time as
any to do such a sequel. However, he has kids and a family and what
follows is on the predictable side, though some might find that
reassuring and safe. I thought it was worth a look for the big fans,
though even the makers probably wondered what Clark would have done
was he still with us. It really helps to watch the first film first.
There
are oddly no extras.
Joe
Lazarov's Dolly
Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas
(2022) is yet another special with the most successful
singer/songwriter in Country Music history, and then some. This is
simply a Backstage Musical about a TV music special being made at her
Dollywood amusement park and to her credit, its not merely an
85-minutes-long advertisement for her company. Then Dolly (playing a
variation of herself) starts to take her own magic fantasy journey.
The rest is as expected and can be predictable, but her acting (she
has that talent too) helps and this is fine for what it is. All in
all, it is for families and fans only.
A
Making Of featurette entitled A
Holiday With Dolly
is the only extra.
For
more on Dolly, including a deluxe DVD set that has her back in the
day on other's people's Christmas specials, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15806/Dolly:+The+Ultimate+Collection+(196
Lifetime
12-Movie Set: A Very Merry Christmas, Volume 5 + 6
(2019 - 2022) from the cable TV network show the de-evolution of the
channel that has really become 'the holiday channel' showing endless,
repetitive, predictable, sad such TV movies in July, which is as
obnoxious as it may seem borderline sacrilege to more orthodox
Christians, et al.
Save
for a rare exception on Volume
6
with Kirk
Franklin's The Night Before Christmas,
these are so cookie-cutter at this point (and NO, not Christmas
Cookie-cutter)
There
are unsurprisingly no extras.
Richard
Curtis' Love
Actually 4K
is a hit film with a following and on its 20th
Anniversary, is back in this new, upgraded version. Not my favorite
film by any means, the thing that does hold up is its cast, but the
one-note passive-joke schtick and variants of the same sex jokes
throughout only make this repetitive and almost annoying in its 2
hours, 15 minutes that have apparently captured a fan base, but it is
just not for me.
The
fun for some with this film is seeing starts then who were not as big
or known at all, or the ones known looking younger, so some might
find the following cast sample of spoilers by default, but the star
power includes Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney,
Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Billy Bob Thornton,
Rowan Atkinson (in semi-cameo form,) Martine McCutcheon, Chiwetel
Ejiorfor, Elisha Cuthbert, Denise Richards, Shannon Elizabeth,
Claudia Schiffer and uncredited turns by Frances de la Tour and
Jeanna Moreau.
Please
note that I am a fan or big fan of many of those listed, but even
they could not save this film from being repetitive, albeit on
purpose for what they apparently were going for. I did not have a
problem with the post-9/11 statement in the beginning of the film
either, though it hardly dealt with that idea afterwards. In
fairness, that would likely be an idea for a different film. Also, I
thought Curtis, a longtime prolific writer, fared better with his
next film, Pirate
Radio
aka The
Boat That Rocked,
reviewed elsewhere on this site. This just has too many meet cute
moments and for em and many others, enough was enough. For fans and
those interested only.
Extras
include Digital Code, while the 4K disc adds a new anniversary Making
Of
featurette and the olde disc (per the press release) adds:
Deleted
Scenes with Introductions by Richard Curtis
The
Music of Love Actually with Introductions by Richard Curtis
The
Storytellers
Kelly
Clarkson "The
Trouble With Love Is"
Music Video
Billy
Mack "Christmas
is All Around"
Music Video
and
a Feature Length Audio Commentary with Director Richard Curtis and
Actors Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy and Thomas Sangster.
The
Office: Complete Christmas Collection
(2005 - 2012) is a collection of the annual holiday shows from the
hugely successful U.S. version of the big British TV sitcom hit. So
big, the remake is sometimes remembered more than the original
version. I am not massive fan of either version, but they are very
good shows and I totally understand why they were hits. If you are
not familiar with the show, you will not know the characters as well
as fans do.
In
any event, the episodes (per the press release) are...
Christmas
Party:
Holiday cheer is in short supply when Michael insists on doing a
last-minute swap of Secret Santa gifts, and Jim becomes alarmed that
his sweet and sentimental gift for Pam will end up in Dwight's
hands.
A
Benihana Christmas:
It's a time for joy and goodwill toward others, but the staff is
feeling none of it as Michael deals with a broken heart and Angela
and Pam create rival Christmas parties.
Moroccan
Christmas:
It's time for the annual Christmas party and a drunken Meredith gets
into the holiday spirit by setting her hair on fire.
Secret
Santa:
Michael is outraged when Jim allows Phyllis to be Santa at the
Christmas party, where holiday spirits are dampened by the company's
troubles. Meanwhile, Andy's Secret Santa gifts to Erin backfire and
Oscar has a secret crush.
Classy
Christmas:
Toby takes a leave of absence and corporate sends Holly to cover for
him; Michael forces Pam to hold a second Christmas party on the day
Holly arrives; Dwight challenges Jim to a snowball fight.
Christmas
Wishes:
Andy tries to make this year's Christmas the best ever by granting
each person's holiday wishes; Robert California tries to drown his
sorrows at the office party.
and
Dwight
Christmas:
When the party planning committee drops the ball on the annual
Christmas party, Dwight gets everyone to celebrate with a
traditional Schrute German Christmas.
They
hold up well enough and are not bad, possibly even making new fans
for the show. Cheers to the cast for keeping up such consistently
good work.
Extras
include Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentaries and a Producer's Extended
Cut of the Secret
Santa
episode. You can read more about the series in these reviews of DVD
season sets as follows:
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4345/The+Office
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6009/The+Office
Four
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7450/The+Office
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Love
Actually 4K
is better than the old 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image
on the older Blu-ray repressed fort this set, with its motion blur
and detail limits. However, there is still some odd blur on the 4K
edition and maybe it is an older HD master Universal thought was good
enough for the upgrade? Still, it is an improvement enough that fans
will be happy, but I was not as impresses. As for sound, the new
lossless Dolby
Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) upgrade of
the original 5.1 sound is better than the often flat-sounding and
limited DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix from the older
Blu-ray. The film was obviously a quiet, dialogue and joke-based
film, with all kinds of music, but never any kind of sonic wonder.
The Atmos brings out as much of the original soundmaster as we will
ever hear, albeit professional at best. The combination on the 4K
disc is the preferred way to view the film, but default if nothing
else.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all the discs are trying to
be 'Christmas colorful' and the like, but the Story
and Dolly
releases are surprisingly softer than they should be and to be blunt,
than clips I have seen of them otherwise. The lifetime telefilms
look better, when they should not and The
Office
episodes look the best by a narrow hair.
All
releases feature lossy Dolby Digital 5.1, save the 24 Lifetime
films in lesser, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, but they are about
on an even keel. However, the Lifetime
films are always finished and mixed to push their sound up in
artificial ways that cause some harmonic distortion and other sonic
issues that you can hear if you listen to enough, so be careful of
high playback volumes. Maybe this is why they do not do lossless
sound and HD discs.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
