DVD REVIEW: UP

Out now on DVD and Blu-ray
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

In the opening moments of Up, a couple's an entire life together, from childhood to marriage and through to old age, is beautifully rendered in near silence. It's one of the best scenes from any film released in 2009; the rest of the film is also near-perfect.

78-year-old Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner), the surviving half of the couple from the opening scenes, lives in his marital home despite the encroaching city developments: he refuses to sell the home where he and wife, Ellie, made their life together. But when circumstances force Carl's hand, instead of giving in he takes flight – literally. The former balloon vendor hitches thousands of helium balloons to his house and launches into the sky, headed for South America and Paradise Falls; Carl and Ellie fell in love over their shared sense of adventure and promised to go their one day but, as they say, life happens while you're making other plans.

Accidentally tagging along for the ride is Russell, a boy scout in need of a 'Helping the Elderly' badge. He's also in need of a father figure, much to the chagrin of the curmudgeonly Carl. Touching down on the cliffs opposite Paradise Falls, Carl and Russell proceed to drag the house to the waterfall, joined along the way by a large bird of colourful plumage, whom Russell names Kevin, and a talking dog named Dug.

Dug is on the outer with his fellow dogs who have been tracking the giant bird for their master, famed adventurer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), the man who inspired Carl and Ellie's love of adventure. But you should never meet your heroes, certainly not those who have spent years alone in the jungle chasing an elusive goal and have gone quite mad in the process.

While Up has an action-packed climax, it doesn't falter in the same way that Pixar's previous effort WALL-E did. That film also had a wonderful opening sequence but became repetitive in its second half. Still, many believed WALL-E was deserving of Best Picture consideration for the 2008 Oscars. Don't be at all surprised if Up is among the nominees for Best Picture this year, especially with the field expanded to 10; the Producers Guild (PGA) (a good indicator) just last week named it one of their 10 best of 2009.

I've already named it one of my best of 2009 and recommend that if you missed it at the cinema, do yourself a favour and catch it on DVD. And if you're not sold after the first five minutes, perhaps check for a pulse - you may very well be dead.

OSCARS 09 REPORT #6: BEST DIRECTOR

With the Best Picture race expanded to 10 nominees but Best Director remaining at five, the BD nominees could very well determine the BP winner: it is unlikely that Best Picture will come from the five films that miss out on a Director's nod.

Just today the Directors Guild of America (DGA) has announced their nominees for 2009, and these five should be considered the Oscar favourites:

Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker: Will definitely become just the 4th woman nominated for BD, but she is firming as the first female winner.

James Cameron - Avatar's box office simply can't be denied. Cameron's use of new technologies is also noteworthy. Trivia: Bigelow and Cameron were once married.

Lee Daniels - Precious: First-time director who has worked wonders with his cast (Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and first-timer Gabourey Sidibe) is, I think, the most susceptible to be left out.

Jason Reitman - Up In The Air: Just his third film could earn Reitman his second Director's nod, after 2007's Juno. Father director Ivan (Ghostbusters) Reitman should be proud.

Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds: 15 years after his first and only Director's nod for Pulp Fiction, Tarantino is back thanks to some Nazi scalping.

Other directors who may sneak in to the 5, especially if their film makes the final 10, are:

The Coen brothers: A Serious Man

Neill Blomkamp - District 9

Lone Scherfig - An Education

Clint Eastwood - Invictus

Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon

FILM REVIEW: IT'S COMPLICATED

Now Showing
Universal Pictures

Beginning with The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Meryl Streep, always a critical darling, has been enjoying a second coming of sorts. At an age when most actresses have been assigned to supporting roles at best, Streep has become a box office gold mine: Mamma Mia! was one of the highest grossing films of 2008, and Julie & Julia took more than $100 million at the US box office despite an '09 summer dominated by male-oriented franchises.

Releasing in the Christmas holiday season will no doubt guarantee It's Complicated a healthy box office return, too. It also provides the female demographic something to occupy their time while the boys head to Avatar (again) and Sherlock Holmes. But I suggest the enjoyment level for the ladies' investment of time and money will not be as high as for either MM! or J&J.

But then I could be wrong - or just the wrong audience for this film. Writer-director Nancy Meyers' previous films – What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday – seem to have connected with (female) audiences, and I'd suggest more for their fantasy and wish fulfillment elements more than anything.

Just as Something's Gotta Give, in which Diane Keaton showed post-middle age could be sexy, It's Complicated similarly concerns itself with a woman (Streep) of 'a certain age' discovering a new lease on life. Divorced 10 years and with her youngest of three children off to college, Jane Adler (Streep) has a thriving bakery business and a kitchen extension to occupy her time. But on a trip to New York for her son's graduation, she ends up in bed with her ex-husband, Jake, played by a grinning Alec Baldwin, no doubt because gets the best lines.

This development appalls Jane at first but soon becomes a source of amusement and pride, for both her and her girlfriends, especially as the affair continues and Jane becomes 'the other woman'; Jake having remarried a much younger bride (Lake Bell) who is painted in very broad strokes as an ovulating shrew. So much for sisterhood, Meyers.

At the same time, a potential suitor also arrives on the scene. Adam (Steve Martin) is the architect designing Jane's new kitchen and he's obviously smitten with his client. Sadly for him, Jane is distracted by her ex. And sadly for Martin, Meyers has given him very little to do. The only time the film sparks up is when Jane and Adam do so, literally, at a party.

But my problem with It's Complicated isn't that it's not funny, it does have its moments. My problem was that I didn't believe in it for a second, and that stems mostly from Meyers' screenplay. For as fun as Streep and Baldwin are, it is hard to believe people could carry on like this. And if it is trying to say something about the complications of post-divorce emotions or a woman's midlife crisis, then again it failed to convince me.

Still, I won't be at all surprised when the film becomes a hit and audiences - the audience it is so squarely aimed at - have a positive response to it. And there's nothing wrong with that. In an era where most studio films are pitched at 14 year old males, sisters have to do it for themselves. Chalk another one up for Meryl. Me, I'll just wait for Julie & Julia's DVD release next month.

DVD REVIEW: RED CLIFF

Out Now on DVD and Blu-ray
Icon Home Entertainment

After more than a decade working in Hollywood with varying degrees of success – props for Face/Off; Mission: Impossible II not so much – director John Woo returned to China (he was born there but lived mostly in Hong Kong) to make this historical epic.

And while some of his idiosyncrasies remained in tact while stateside – his penchant for slow-mo for one – this is, understandably, Woo's most 'Chinese' film in years: epic, sumptuous, balletic battle scenes and just a hint of the mystical.

Recounting an historic battle in China circa 208 AD, between imperial forces and those of a combined but vastly outnumbered provincial army, Red Cliff is a David and Goliath tale or, for an Australian reference, a Chinese Gallipoli, although that doesn't work quite as well since the underdogs there didn't fare as well as their Chinese counterparts.

Red Cliff is being released in both its original two-part four hour plus version, The Battle of Red Cliff, as well as the combined and condensed (133 minutes) version which was distributed in Western countries. While the shorter version is an impressive film you can't help but notice that large sections of narrative have been excised.

Still, not everyone has a spare four hours to set aside to watch a film but then DVD and Blu-ray technology allows one to bend a film to their will and schedule. You'll know if you're best prepared for a short campaign or a battle royale.