Review by Gary Tooze

 

Studio:

Theatrical: Columbia Pictures

Blu-ray: Sony Pictures

 

Disc:

Region: A

Runtime: 2:05:43

Chapters: 16

Size: 50GB

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: April 8th, 2008

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Resolution: 1080P

Video codec: VC-1

 

Audio:

English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, DUB: French: Dolby TrueHD 5.1

 

Subtitles:

English SDH, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Korean, Thai, none

 

Extras:

• Commentary by Terry Gilliam and a few members of the Cast

• 3-part Making of Featurette: The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen 1:11:34 (SD)

• Deleted Scenes (4:3)

• Storyboard sequences (with optional commentary)

 

 

The Film:

The tall tales of the legendary 18th-century Baron Munchausen would seem perfect subject matter for Gilliam's fertile imagination; indeed, despite production problems, the film is an engaging and dottily fantastic spectacular. The Baron (Neville) and his superhuman colleagues are rather colourless creations, but the characters they encounter during their odyssey - mafioso-like King of the Moon (Williams), love-lorn Vulcan (Reed) - are vivid and funny. Still more bizarre is the look of the film: an island transformed into a monstrous fish, a balloon sewn from underwear sailing over a war-torn city, a ship rippling through a desert strewn with statuary. But this third part of Gilliam's trilogy, about 'the triumph of imagination over rationality' and lighter in tone than Brazil, hardly warrants serious analysis. More of its budget should have been spent on the script - there are jarring leaps in the narrative - but it's good, intelligent fun, and occasionally truly surprising.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE

 

 

 

Image: This dual-layered Blu-ray has some very strong moments especially considering the film's age. What is nice to see is that the less detailed special effects (relatively speaking) of close to 20 years ago, aren't misplaced in 1080P. They translate with surprising effectiveness and clarity. The 35mm source shows background grain looking quite film-like. Noise is limited and detail and color in skin tones are at a very high level. Now, I'll state my expectation were not especially high for this title but they were, honestly, exceeded somewhat. Contrast is even with no overly bright moments - in fact I only noted one weakness; in some of the space sequences there was a greenish haze entering from the left of the screen on my system. It was very brief but some may also see this phenomenon. Otherwise this represents the film extremely well for home theatre viewing - a definite, and highly noticeable, upgrade from SD.   

 

(Subtitle Sample)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio & Music: We are given a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track that although not extensively dynamic - does the job well enough to satisfy. We should remember the age of the film and only so much can be done with 20-year old audio. Saying that I noted no flaws and the explosions and amusing music sounded adequate if not notable. There is a French lossless DUB included and subtitles in a host of options making this disc saleable in various other countries including parts of South America and Asia. 

 

 

 

Extras: Gilliam takes the lead in the commentary track which exports standard fare, but still nice to hear him discuss the film with some nostalgia. Extensive, and reminding me of the supplement information on Criterion's Brazil, is a 3-part Making of... featurette entitled The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen. It runs almost 1 hour 15 minutes but is only offered in standard -definition. Lots of detail on battles with the studio and production foibles. Great stuff. Also are some poor quality deleted scenes in letterbox widescreen and some storyboard sequences (with optional commentary by Gilliam).

 

 

 

 

Bottom line: I saw this in the theatre and at least twice at home since then but never really warmed to the film, although, I guess, I wanted to. Cute enough but something was never 'right' for me. Until now. Perhaps I have matured (or digressed?). Or, it is quite possible that watching this blu-ray transfer, while sitting on my couch, has sold me to a higher level than previous. It wouldn't surprise me at all - as it happens all the time. Of course the featurette in the supplements, helped improve my appreciation of the film and I had much more fun with it this time (as did my kids). Technically- as long as you aren't expecting the quality of, say, the Spiderman Trilogy, I can't see too many people not be content with how this high-definition DVD presents the film. So, that sounds like a recommendation.   

 

 

Gary Tooze
April 5th, 2008